daggers as dawn

...today's weather has been, more or less, a repeat of yesterday. The best of the sun was during the first part of the morning, with increasing cloud building to give heavy rain and hail showers this afternoon.

We took advantage of the best of the weather to go blip-hunting in and around our local Wildlife Trust nature reserve. There are plenty of hawthorn and blackthorn bushes here and I was hoping to find either Hawthorn or Hairy Shieldbugs. I didn't find either but, one thing that searching through the bushes has been good for, is uncovering caterpillars.

This beautiful example is the caterpillar of the Grey Dagger moth, Acronicta psi, which is busy feeding in preparation for spinning its cocoon before overwintering as a pupa.

After lunch, we went for a wet, muddy and showery walk in the woods but didn't find anything out of the ordinary to photograph...