When I lived in Gryon I had 64 species on my garden list ... I doubt I will ever be so lucky again!
Patience is a virtue and hibernating caterpillars have it in spades. Gautama, the only purple emperor caterpillar I have followed through the winter, is now just days from his first 2016 meal, but he is not getting ahead of himself. Compare these two pictures, the first taken on 12th February, the second today. I think he has moved forward a little under a millimetre. You can almost hear him salivating.
I had taken those big, purple buds to be flower buds and thought he had made a mistake, but the mistake was mine. They are clearly leaf buds.
The honeysuckle was in leaf all over the forest today, but not in any of the places I knew there to be hibernating white admiral caterpillars.
This little chap has probably a couple of weeks to wait:
This one might get his meal sooner:
But he seems quite happy where he is:
Life becomes more dangerous when they leave their little sleeping bags.
I returned to cloud and rain, which is also forecast for the next few days. So no new butterflies on the wing yet. And yes, Minnie was over the moon to see me again!
Guy