Nasturtiums 2

The nasturtiums have finally succumbed to the cold weather of the last couple of days. Even so, there are still many leaves and flowers unaffected.

I took a close look this morning and there are still caterpillars of the large white butterfly and the small white butterfly. It is unlikely that these will survive to become chrysalis.

Caterpillar of the large white Caterpillar of the small white

Nasturtiums

Its hard to believe that not only are the nasturtiums still surviving in my garden they are still flowering and spreading across the front of the house. There are still several large white (butterfly) caterpillars feeding on them. Hopefully the frost will hold off long enough for them to develop into a chrysalis for the winter.

Red Admiral, Sparrowhawk and Goldfinch

A dull, overcast day. However a red admiral flew through the garden pushed along by the wind. A sparrow hawk also circled just to the north of our garden, silhouetted against the dark rain clouds. I could also hear the chattering sounds of goldfinches at the top of the tree.

Chrysalis and wasps

I have been keeping an eye on the large white caterpillar that climbed up the wall from the nasturtium's mentioned in my last blog. The caterpillar climbed as high as it could and then attached itself with silk. Since then it has been getting shorter and fatter as the chrysalis developed beneath the skin.

I have been decorating the front of the house, and as you can see I had to paint around the caterpillar.

This morning I noticed the caterpillar had finished developing into a chrysalis. The skin splits away to reveal the chrysalis. You can see the remains of the skin at the end of the tail end of the chrysalis.

I noticed some wasps flying around the tree that hangs over our back garden from a neighbours. They were mostly high up but occasionally one would settle close enough to see. They look slightly different to common wasps, but I can't be certain. I need to try to get a photograph of the wasps face markings.

This one was caught in a spiders web.

While watching the wasps a red admiral butterfly flew over the garden but did not settle.