30 Days Wild - day 27

Only a couple of days left now until the end of the project so I thought I would bring you an update on the cinnabar caterpillars as so many of you have been interested in following their progress.

They are now 10 days old and as you can see they finally have their stripes, not quite as brightly striped as they eventually become but definitely striped now.

They have travelled quite a way up the ragwort plant as most of them are now situated right at the top amongst the flower buds.

We have spotted quite a few of these vapourer moth caterpillars on our nature walks all usually in the same area, although they often have very slight colour variations of the tufts on their backs.

We also got to creep up on this small tortoiseshell butterfly as it was feeding on a flower, very beautiful markings.

30 Days Wild - day 5

We had a really long day out in nature yesterday, so today has been a little more sedate although we have still spent some time wild. Each year we extend the amount of garden we use for nature and wild flowers. Today we have been watching a regular garden visitor of ours, the cinnabar moth laying it's eggs on the ragwort.

A very attractive red and black moth, the caterpillars are orange and black striped and my daughter affectionately calls them 'tiger pillars'. I will add photographs when our batches of eggs hatch.

My daughter has spent some time looking at the wood lice and feeling them tickle her hand, they are one of her favourites along with snails. We are hoping to create a special habitat for them soon.

One of the new wild flowers in our garden this year is common fumitory and it's doing really well at the moment and attracting the wildlife.

Another wild flower doing well is the oxeye daisy a big favourite with the bees and today I have noticed these beetles... strangely called a varied carpet beetle, the adults like pollen.