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Hi Pauline,

Cracking first report and photos for the new season , hope you and all your charges are well.

All the best ,

Neil

Brilliant, Pauline. I'm so pleased two of your caterpillars survived fit and healthy. I too have been following Guy's diary, and it amazes me how these tiny creatures get through the depths of winter tucked away in their dead leaf "sleeping bags". I shall now follow the progress of your charges with great interest!

Dave

Good to be back Guy - thank you for your comment.

Thanks Neil. Pleased to say charges are doing well albeit with large vets bills You might remember my wild rabbit. Photo below:
I have managed to find her a friend for company:
Thank you Dave. It is so interesting and I am excited at the prospect of being able to monitor them. I shall certainly keep you informed.

Last year on 13 April I was on Noar Hill taking photos of the Duke. I popped up there this year but it was fairly cool and cloudy and no Dukes were seen. Following Mike's report of the Dukes the following day I decided to return and managed a few shots before it started to rain:
Being so close to this site I am sure to be back to take another look for that gorgeous ab. Mike photographed.

HI Pauline,

Good to see you back after a long winter. You certainly returned with a bang with those exquisite
Duke shots. Not too long before i'll see you at Botany Bay.

Best wishes,
TREVOR.

Super Duke shots! I especially like the first one. Suddenly, after a slow start, everything is appearing at once.

Lovely Duke of Burgundy shots, Pauline It's interesting that your photos show female(s) DOB. We saw only females (4) during our visit last Wednesday! Where are the males??

Mike

Yes, nice to see you back, Pauline, and thanks for the White Admiral 'cat' update.

Love the White Ad caterpillar pictures. Knock spots of my attempts the other day! Also very jealous of your Duke pictures, a species I've yet to see, hopefully the next few weeks will change that though.

Lovely Duke photos Pauline, things seems to be at least two weeks behind here at present which might have done me a favour, I had an eye operation on Friday so I've to rest up for a few days all being well I'll be on the move next week.

Glad you found a friend for your Rabbit , also glad to see you back, look forward to seeing more lovely pic's Goldie

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')

before I leave the OT's for another season, a quick update on the female from yesterday on the Wallflowers:
Before dusk she was joined by another female and there they spent the night:
As I type at mid-day one of the females has left but the other is still hanging about on a Cuckoo plant enjoying the sun - or perhaps just waiting for a passing male

HI Pauline,
You'll have to send some of your Orange Tips over here, they seem to be few and far between in
East Sussex at the moment , sightings could be counted on one hand !.
Well done with rearing some .

Best wishes,
TREVOR.

I'll do my best Trevor - I'm sure they'll be there soon. Thank you for the compliment but these must be the easiest cats to rear as they did it all by themselves I think more must have pupated round the garden than I realised! I wasn't going to talk about OT's anymore but I feel I must now finish the story.

I was wondering if this particular female was OK as she was showing no sign of wanting to move (in almost 24 hours and it had been sunny for hours) when a Small White came along and started to nectar in the plum tree, quite close to her:
He soon made a beeline for her and she was forced to abandon her Cuckoo plant. Now I am not very good at shots of moving butterflies (here's your chance John if you should happen to be reading ) but I will post the shots anyway by way of illustration. For almost 15 mins he pursued her around the garden and it was clear that all she wanted to do was to get back to her plant which she repeatedly tried to do:
Eventually she managed to shake him off and settled back on her plant - she was still there a couple of hours later when I went out. When I returned she was gone so I hope she wasn't picked off by one of the birds.


Back to my WA cats. I am just so thrilled to watch these cats growing and thriving so I hope you will bear with me as I post yet another shot taken today:
They are looking like proper little cats now. I have recently found a couple of cats in the wild and I was reassured to see that they are at about the same level of development as 'my' cats.

Hi Pauline, great action shots of the Orange-tip and Small white. I also really like the Orange-tip images with the blurred flowers (I presume) in the background

Looking forward to see your little cats develop.

All the best,

Neil.

Thank you Neil. Yes, they are Wallflowers of some sort. I, too, am really excited about the prospect of watching my cats develop but at the same time terrified in case anything goes wrong. They seem to be growing almost daily now.

For completeness I should start at the beginning. My very first outing this year was on 8 April to Pulborough Brooks. I could not resist the possibility of seeing a Scarce Tortoiseshell so close to me but as luck would have it, the butterfly was there most of the day on the 7th and 9th - case of right place, wrong time. The best shot I got all day was a Blackcap. I get these birds coming into the garden but what was different about this photo was that it wasn't blurred! I seem to have a lot of difficulty with bird photography:
I recently made a trip to Botany Bay but just a little too early for the Wood White. I was lucky enough to get a lift from Philip who stopped the car so I could take this shot of a Red-legged Partridge:
Today I decided to stay close to home and on a local common saw ants whipped into a frenzy. I stopped to see the reason for the commotion and noted several of these grubs were being attended to by the ants. I hadn't realised that ants had 'relationships' with anything other than butterflies - a bit naive I guess. I'd be interested to know what this creature will become if anyone has a clue:

HI Pauline,
Just reading about your trip to see the Scarce Tortoiseshell. As it was seen on the days either side of your
visit i think you were a victim of a well known law. The one that's named after a lump of earth!
I fall victim to it all the time. ( Lovely shot of the Partridge ).

Best wishes,
TREVOR.

HI Pauline,
Thanks for the Orange Tips . Now i would like you to make sure there are plenty of PE's at
Botany Bay this year , but only the type that display with purple on all four wings !.
Hoping to find some Dukes on the way to work tomorrow.

Best wishes ,
TREVOR.

No worries Trevor. Plenty of Dukes here - I'll send a few over. Can't make any promises about PE tho' - I need all I can get, especially those with purple on all wings

Took a bit of finding but got there eventually:

..... and another

Hi,

Lovely Silver washed Frit cats there Pauline.

Andy