An abundance of Wildlife

We had a day with friends yesterday and completed the three-and-a-half-mile trail around the RSPB reserve at Lakenheath Fen.
We saw (or heard) a wealth of birds, and I had my first proper view of a Bittern, in fact we saw several sightings of them during our walk, sadly I didn’t get any bird photos at all, I think the extremely hot weather had made my camera ‘lethargic’ (or perhaps it was the operator?).

It was a joy to see so many butterflies too, I was beginning to think there weren’t so many this year but they were abundant at this site.  Yes…I did take photos of those but the pesky things kept folding their wings up or facing the wrong way and dear friend B has managed to capture a fab shot on her blip:
https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2322821548693522061

However, I have treated you to a photo of a spider I had not seen before.  It doesn’t seem to have a common name but I believe it’s a Pisaura mirabilis, this is a hunting spider that hunts its prey on the ground.  I think this must be a female and the ‘web’ is actually a ‘nursery tent’ for her hatchling spiders, which is why I was able to see her perched up high.

The extra of caterpillars is a bit of a mystery though, does anyone know what these might be?