This year, for some reason, I have become more aware of caterpillars, moths & butterflies. Obviously I know they’ve always been around but they’re not something I would have paid much attention to in the past, preferring to focus more on garden birds.

This year, however, has been different. I’m not really a fan of creepy crawlies but the past few months has seen me lying down with my camera among the nettles looking on the underside of the leaves in the hope of spotting something I’ve never seen before.

I’m excited to say today I found it πŸ™‚

But first, a little background information… I work from home and have no car, which is why all of my posts are photos taken around my garden. I can’t get anywhere local as there are no walks around where we live, and to be honest I don’t fancy walking down the country lanes that surround us as I know how fast the tractors, coaches & cars bomb down them past the house!

So, I’m kind of limited to the number of butterflies & moths I get to see. So far this summer I’ve seen Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Small Heath and small “brown ones” which I can’t get close to.

red admiral
Red Admiral
painted lady
Painted Lady
small tortoiseshell
Small Tortoiseshell
red admiral
Red Admiral
small heath
Small Heath – you have to zoom in to see this one πŸ™‚

We’ve had our fair share of caterpillars recently, with huge numbers of the Cinnabar Moth caterpillar…

Cinnabar Moth caterpillarο»Ώ

So, getting back to today’s exciting news (well for me anyway)… a butterfly I’ve always wanted to see & never have is the Comma. I think it’s the most beautiful butterfly we have. After half an hour looking amongst the HUGE nettle patch we have in the “wild/left to its own devices” patch, I saw this caterpillar underneath one of the leaves…

caterpillar

Straight into Google and I was delighted to find out it’s a Comma butterfly caterpillar – thanks to Butterfly Conversation.org It’s very hairy/spikey and has a white bar on it’s back, which I’ve since found out is supposed to resemble bird droppings…

comma butterfly caterpillar

So, that’s my exciting news for this month! My mum is coming to stay for a week in September & I’m actually hiring a car so watch this space for photos of “beyond Ballydavis” πŸ™‚

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