Tortoiseshell butterfly caterpillars on the same patch of nettles as their peacock butterfly relatives which featured in a post yesterday.
The black of their bodies is less shiny than the peacocks, and they have green streaks running along their sides.
Tall umbellifer, so its seed head was above my line of sight. Although the sun was behind me, the light has caught the fine hairs on the edges of the stems.
Shiny black peacock butterfly caterpillars on their preferred food plant, nettles.
All the pictures were taken on the same day towards the end of July, but show caterpillars of different sizes, an indication of how much they grow at this stage of their life cycle.
Brown hawker, a common dragonfly usually seen on a fast, zig-zag flight patrolling a territory over still or slowly moving water. They rarely seem to slow down except to mate and lay their eggs.
This one was at the pool in Compton Park. The flashes of blue in the picture, not visible (at least to me) to the naked eye, confirm that it is a male.
Old man’s beard (alias travellers joy) is the native clematis species. It can be found spreading over hedges, and sometimes also over fences and walls. The white flowers appear over August and September. The seeds, on the plant over the winter, have a feathery attachment for wind dispersal, not particularly reminiscent of facial hair.
Scalloped oak moth, like many night-flying moths, needs somewhere to rest up for the day. This one chose a rather visible spot ona white-painted house wall, with only landline cable for protection. It survived to fly off that evening, and hopefully late found a safer spot to sleep.