With signs of spring showing everywhere, and a gloriously warm and sunny afternoon on offer today I could not help but be tempted to venture outside for a couple of hours. There were two things that I was hoping to accomplish today and amazingly I managed to do both of them..... today was a good day
The first of these was to get a proper look at some butterflies, I saw one fly past "at speed" on Tuesday with Badgerbob but nothing settled meaning no photos. As soon as I arrived at the path leading to my ultimate destination I disturbed what I thought it was a Small Tortoiseshell. After tracking it for a while it landed and I got my first shot of the year, not a Small Tort after all! But a very tired and tatty Red Admiral, what a little warrior!
Further along the path I caught a glimpse of a Peacock chasing after a Small Tortoiseshell, things are definitely looking up I thought to myself
After another hundred yards or so I reached my destination. I've been telling Badgerbob about a spot near me where we get very good numbers of Wall Brown and that it would be a very good place to search for some Wall Larvae. There was a cool but gentle breeze the sun felt nice and warm so I was hoping against the odds that it would tempt a Wall caterpillar into view. I didn't fancy my chances much, I'd only just seen my first Wall Larvae thanks to Bob so finding one in a totally different location and flying solo this time I felt it would be some task. Nevertheless I intended to give it my best shot, if I failed then at least I'd managed to get my first butterfly photo of 2014.
Attempting to locate a Wall Brown Larva is exactly like trying to find a very small needle in an enormous haystack!
After searching for about 15 minutes something caught my eye, it looked like a larva but it was very dark, definitely not a Wall then - I thought. On closer inspection I appeared to have found a vacated larval skin. If anyone has any idea what it is/was please let me know.
After that false alarm I stopped for a spot of lunch. Feeling refreshed I resumed my search, maybe the food had sharpened my senses but "I think it was pure luck" my efforts were rewarded with my first solo discovery of a Wall Brown Larva in a local place where I had suspected that there simply had to be some.
Compared with the ones I saw 'thanks to Bob' the size of this little fellow was roughly somewhere between the small one and the large one in last Tuesday's post.
This is where I found him/her enjoying some early spring warmth
I then managed to carefully isolate the larva on it's blade of grass before returning it safely to the place I'd found it.
Here's the larva on a blade of grass with my finger for scale, as you can see it was pretty small.
And finally a few more shots of my little new found friend
With that wonderful discovery I happily started back for home, on the way I spotted another Small Tortoiseshell, I couldn't resist stopping for a quick record shot.
It was a really enjoyable afternoon, and I promise that's it for Wall larva for now...... well maybe one more, but next time it will be just for fun
What do ya reckon Bob not too bad for a beginner eh?
B'saurus
Well I can believe that Bob 
