Thanks Wurzel. Whirr of yellow duly recorded, but the cold has returned here and I've seen just one comma since then!
You can't spend too much time with caterpillars, Benjamin.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
It was a shame about missing that one. I had examined very, very closely where I held the twig, so as not to crush one of these tiny creatures unintentionally, but believed at the time the caterpillar had hatched the night before and was probably in a flower.
My third hibernating cat began nibbling at his egg-case on 3rd March. I didn't get any decent pictures, but these show the idea:
On 4th March he was still merely sampling the air:
None of the elm flowers on his twig have opened. Does he know this? Is the preparatory opening a way of sniffing the state of his immediate environment?
Today he was still inside but the hole was bigger:
This particular egg is not easily accessible without the risk of breaking twigs, so I can't get good pictures. But I blew up that last shot to show what I think is the caterpillar in the opening:
On the river, the solitary ruff that has spent the last three winters here was feeding avidly, building up strength for his forthcoming nuptials:
The snows brought in plenty of redwing but I was too busy skiing to photograph them. Here's one in the water meadows along the Deben:
Guy