I'm working inside today but just had to go and check on Aurelian. A couple of weeks ago the woodmen chopped down most of the sallow and elm in the rides of my local woods and when I visited this morning I found they had completed the job. There are now virtually no shrubs or deciduous trees along the main ride - all the elms I have in the past found white-letter hairstreak caterpillars on are gone and whole swathes of sallow have disappeared from the slopes above the rides too.
HOWEVER, Aurelian's tiny cluster of trees is intact. It was extremely difficult photographing him in the wind but I got a few bad shots - enough to see he is about to shed his skin, I think.
These are the give-away leaves telling you there is an active iris cat in the vicinity!
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/iriscataurelianfirstfeed1203.jpg)
Nearby, moving around in a newly unfurling bunch of leaves, was Aurelian:
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/iriscataurelianfirstfeed1201.jpg)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2012/iriscataurelianfirstfeed1202.jpg)
You can see from the condition of the head in the first picture that he is soon going to change. This is earlier than the last spring cat I watched (Nero, in May 2010) but he did feed up a lot longer in the autumn, because of the protracted season, and so might have hibernated almost ready for the next instar. Or, Nero might have hibernated in second instar, I suppose.
Guy