Pale Tussock ( Calliteara pudibunda )

Back blipping as I wanted to get my blip for my important day up on the 24th.

There was one patch of the Lodge garden that still needed dealt with. It is an area where we originally planted a flowering plant.  Now we have a Rodgersia and are introducing some wildflowers.  So it was a case of hand cut round the Rodgersia and one or two wildflowers.  Then strim and remove all the cuttings.  Removal of the cuttings is vital for the wildflowers as they do best in poor soil and decaying clippings are of course fertiliser.

We spotted a couple of hairy caterpillars.  I took shots thinking this will make a blip.  See extras.  I have identified the caterpillar in the extra as a Cream-spot Tiger Moth based purely on the wildlife insight website saying "the brown head helps identify it from other caterpillars".  I am quite happy to accept correction if you know what it really is.

A little later Clickychick was shouting quick get your camera.  She had spotted another interesting caterpillar.  This time standing out well on the dark verandah.  It was a Pale Tussock Moth caterpillar.  The food plant is a wide variety of broadleaved trees and shrubs.  So I assume it had dropped from the overhanging branches of next door's Copper Beech tree.