There are some great birds around at Minsmere this week, but I make apologies for choosing another insects as our star species this week since insects are such amazing creatures and often only around for a few months or weeks.
First though, a quick summary of some of the recent bird sightings, starting with the purple heron that remains at Bittern Hide though continues to show only occasionally. Similarly, the two Savi's warblers remain at Island Mere but can be a challenge to hear and are all but impossible to see. Not so the Mediterranean gulls, Sandwich terns and common terns, all of which have fledged or near fledged young on the Scrape.
Elsewhere on the Scrape, the large flocks of black-tailed godwits have been joined by up to 12 spotted redshanks, a couple of ruffs and green sandpipers and a little ringed plover, with a couple of sightings of a wood sandpiper (beware to check the leg colour though as the latter are easily confused with juvenile redshanks). Avocets are still nesting and there are several young shelducks and mallards around, increasing numbers of teals, and several little egrets.
A highlight on Sunday was a common crane that flew south, while hobbies, marsh harriers, buzzards and bearded tits are much more likely over the reedbed. Reed warblers and reed buntings are very active in the reedbed, and a garden warbler is still singing around the car park entrance, where a nuthatch was heard yesterday.
The car park and visitor centre area is a great place for insect watching on arrival at Minsmere, with a good variety of butterflies attracted tot he buddleia bushes, brambles and other flowers. As well as the commoner species (red admiral, small tortoiseshell, peacock, large white, green-veined white, meadow brown), these bushes have attracted white admiral and both hummingbird and broad-bordered bee-hawkmoths in recent days. The adjacent oak trees can be good places to look for purple hairstreaks, but the North Hide and Canopy Hide areas may be more productive. (Several of these species are among Minsmere's 70 species to spot this year.)
It's not just butterflies and moth attracted to the buddlieas either, as their blooms also attract various hoverflies, bees and flies, and these in turn attract the predators of the insect world; the dragonflies. Southern hawkers, ruddy and common darters and broad-bodied chasers have all been seen here in recent days.
Nearby, there were Norfolk hawkers and emerald damselflies egg-laying in the pond yesterday and brown argus and common blue butterflies nearby. The various bees and wasps around the North Bushes are joined by small copper, meadow brown and small heath butterflies, with small, large and Essex skipper butterflies in any grassy areas and the gorgeous six-belted clearwing moths along the North Wall.
It's here too, that you may spot our species of the week, the cinnabar moth caterpillar. They are easy to spot if you know where to look. First, find a patch of ragwort, a familiar yellow flower of roadside verges and grassy heaths. Then look carefully, especially towards the top of the stems, for the distinctive yellow and black-striped caterpillars. You have a few short weeks to tick this caterpillar off on your 70 species checklist before they pupate for the winter.
The colour is deterrent to predators, and indication that these caterpillars may not taste nice. The adult moths use the same technique to deter predators, but they choose red and black instead. These are day-flying moths that were most active in May and June, when they laid their eggs on the growing ragwort plants (photo below).
If you spot a black and red moth around the North Wall or dunes now then it is more likely to be a six-spot burnet moth - another day-flying species (photo below).
Cinnabars aren't the only distinctive caterpillars to look out for either. Along the path from the sluice to South Belt, several large, brightly coloured emperor moth caterpillars have been seen this week (photo below). So have the caterpillar-like larvae of the great silver diving beetle that I mentioned in my last blog.