Hi Trevor, good to hear from you. Wood White will be out any day now at BB weather permitting. See ya there
Thanks Mike - appreciate your comment. Yes, it's all happening now.
Not as good as yours Mike! - and still no ab (collected or eaten?). Bumped into Nick and he reminded me that females were out 1st last year. I'll be taking note next year. Thank you for your comment.
Thank you David and Bugboy. One of the WA cats appears to have just moulted (old skin can be seen just above cat in photo). This one is now about 5mm and the other a couple of mm smaller:
Gosh Goldie, are you OK? Sorry to hear about the op. Hope you're on the mend soon. I appreciate your compliment.
Last year I decided to try to rear a couple of OT cats but when they pupated they did so on the mesh cage instead of the sticks provided which was always going to make photography difficult. I was therefore delighted when quite by chance I found a pupa on the garlic mustard by the poultry shed. I protected this pupa all Winter and kept the hens away, watching with interest as it started to colour up recently, a sure sign that it was close to emerging:
Last Sunday evening a neighbour came round to apologise that one of her cats had caught one of my Doves and it was badly ripped open. The vet prescribed antibiotics before arranging to stitch her up on Wednesday morning. It was a local vet and I was only out 30 mins but when I got back I was greeted by this:
Neither did I see the male emerge in the cage but I managed a few shots afterwards:
Ah well, there's always next year!
(As I type I have been watching a female OT 'roosting' on my Wallflowers for the past couple of hours - can't help wondering if she is 'mine')