spinning

Today..lovely sunny day,
One of the caterpillars (The one I found a few days ago)
started spinning.
First he spun a layer on the stem of the plant.
And then he started making his safetybelt.
Its such a loevely sight.
More than 30 times I guess..making the girdle stronger and stronger.



When he was finished he sat down quietly.
Hanging a little in the belt, (frontlegs loose,)

Such a brave heart.

Doddi 9

After some more kreagggg...cracks
and a squeak...a small little bird came out.
It had exactly the same color as the egg...

firy bright red.

Doddi 8

Everyday Doddi turned the egg,
looked curiously at the odd red egg to see if it was still red
and sat down on it again
to breed a little more.

After 10 days of breeding,
Doddi heard a little sound under her feet...skggggt krrrregggg...squeeeeeggg...

and as she looked...
out of the red egg pieced a greenish beak.

caterpillar 3

When I inspected this morning the 2 caterpillars, how they were doing
after lastnights floodrains...
and if they already are preparing for cocooning.

Suddenly my eye caught another caterpillar sitting on a foeniculum plant nearby.
A fullgrown third one!
I could not believe my eyes.
Was this the lost one and now being found?
Or is this another new one.

So now there are 3 of them almost ready to go in cocoon.

It feels as if I found a little treasure...

waterfall

Its extremely raining all day long.
Downpouring from my roof..the gutter cannot handle these floods of rain.

It looks like a waterfall .

more ounces

Some more ounces on the caterpillars

Caterpillar update

The 2 caterpillars are doing great.
growing fat and round.

Today I made a new shelter for them, to protect them from the birds,
the old one becoming too small for the fatties.

Within a week I expect them to go into cocoon.
I will keeping an eye on them...as not to miss this spectacular transformation.

Doddi 7

After Doddi had placed the egg steady between the fork of the branch,
she sat down on the egg to breed,
to protect it & keep the egg nice and warm.

She sat there for days...
staring in the blue...
wondering...
dreaming...
what kind of baby...

Doddi 6

Doddi was very relieved after the egg had come out.
Being very surprised as well, he(she) had made a red egg...!
such a stunning color...such flaming bright red.
She had never seen such a red egg before!
How come?

Carefully she put the egg between some branches of the tree so it could not fall down.

tiny fluffy piece of wool

Sitting outside...having tea,
If felt an itchy thing on my leg.
it looked like a fluffy little piece of wool. which I thoughtless brushed away.
which didn't.
It was kind of glued my leg..
so looking better, I saw it had legs...
the little tiny piece of thread was a very small caterpillar.

It fell on the ground.
I picked it up with a piece of stickynote.
It looked like dead...but soon after it revived again
and tried to run away as fast as possible.

I have no idea which butterfly in becoming this is .

Doddi 5

After having some more cramps and shooting pains...
going through her body...
Doddi sighed with relief,
Suddenly there was an egg sitting under her feet.
A big firy red egg.

Note:
(A very attentive reader commented last time
if Doddi... 'he' was maybe a 'she'.
And she was so right!
Also my cat Bibi looks puzzled if she hears me saying:'he' ..in instead of she...
so the story goes on in the feminine form... for Doddi is definitely a she.)

Catterpillars growing

The catterpillars are growing and growing.
these on top are 3 days ago.



and this ones are taken today.

Doddi 4

Again he felt some shoots coming and going...
disappearing for a while...then coming back faster and more
It wasn't comfortable at all.

Doddi 3

One day, as Doddi sat in his tree, he felt strange, he felt not like other days.
As if a shoot or cramp jumped through his body.
He worried what might be wrong.

Sunbathing

Lovely sunny weather...
Tommy sitting in the morning sun.
He sometimes has this look on his face...as if he is squeezing every once of sunray out of the sun

Butterfly in the kitchen

This morning I discovered a butterfly in the kitchen.
First I thought he was outside, but looking better he sat inside fluttering on the glass window.
I wonder how he came there.
The window is always closed in the kitchen.
I quickly made a photo,

Then I opened the window,
He gratefully said: thank you very much...
waved a last good bye and then he fluttered/flying away into the blue.

caterpillars Swallowtail

Caterpillar from both side

Today I wondered how the caterpillars of the Swallowtail, (Koninginnepage)were doing.
(see post one week ago)
it had been raining quite a lot...though today lovely warm day.
I discovered last week that one caterpillar had escaped.
Probably I didn't knot the little ribbons tight enough, so he could crawl away.
So only two are left and I didn't find more new ones.

They have grown more than twice their size.
I was amazed how big they had grown from so little food in one week!

Doddi 2

He is a bit a funny unusual bird,
not like some.

Doddi

Rectification
(I changed his name overnight.)
This is Doddi.

Oddi 1

This is Oddi.

12 roses

Later this afternoon I found this in my snailmailbox
I was so surprised!
Iwings wants to thank the anonymus viewer very very much...
for sending these beautiful roses and the unusual foldingvase,
and encouraging words.
Thanx so much!

5

I was just wondering this morning about iwings...
that I would look it up...
How many years...somewhere around this time of the year.
I forgot...

Then I chequed my mail this morning.
Tears steamed down my face when I received so many e-cards for iwings being 5 now.
I was so stunned that you did not forget.

So I am so gratefull for all your warm loving congratulations, and being friends.
I baked this morning a digital cake for all of you.
Just enlarge the cake(doubleclickclick cake)
so you can cut for yourself a piece, as much as you like.
and have a second one...or a third..

Thanx so much for following Iwings on his journey on the worldwideweb.

Iwings

looking

I spotted a Damselfly,(Coenagrionidae),(Waterjuffer), looking...at me/you.

caterpillars Queen

Is this an egg of the Swallowtail? or is it a lice or another creepycrawly something else?





After the visitation of the Swallowtail (Koninginnepage),(Papilio machaon), on July 18 last month,
I so now & then, inspect the (Foeniculum vulgare) Venkel
the plant on which she might have put her eggs.
I did see some round white things, but they are so small and tiny,
that I can't distinguish if it is egg or something else.

But today...
YES!
I found 3 caterpillars!
definitely from Swallowtail (Koninginnepage)
4 years ago I had them in my garden...
and here they are again.
I hesitated to repeat the project Save the Queen.
Which, if I do, I would name Save the Queen 2.
As long I don't know what to do, I protected the little 0,5 cm tiny caterpillars with the same little wedding-sweet- sachets I used back then in aug 15 2006
It would be a pity if the birds find the snacks too soon.

raindrops

As the month changed, so changed the weather.
Almost all days lovely warm sunshine in July,
August started with rainshowers.
That has its beauty too...though I prefer the sunshine more.

Raindrops dangling everywhere you look
its not so hard to find those beauty drops.