Alfie spotted this beautiful Small Elephant Hawkmoth (Deilephila porcellus) on the back door this morning. There are 17 hawkmoths that can be found in UK – this one is about the most colourful – even more striking than the Elephant Hawkmoth although more localised. Also probably the smallest with a wingspan of about 50mm.

It wasn’t on a very pleasant background, but was drowsy enough for me to move it onto a cherry leaf and grab my camera.

I think black & white macro is a bit weird, but I like it in this case because it really emphasises the silk. I saw this Araneus diadematus eating prey yesterday, but it’s web was destroyed in the rain last night. It was really amazing to watch it start from scratch…

Just found a lime hawkmoth (Mimas tilae) caterpillar in the garden while picking apples. It was under the tree so I assume it fell out because there wasn’t really anywhere else it could have been, but it doesn’t belong on apple so I’m a bit worried about it…

I watched this leopard slug (Limax maximus) going round in an almost perfect circle for about 20 minutes. Seems like very strange behaviour…