As I suspected, the noise generated by a couple of our clients working in the garden scared all the birds away so I will have to try for photographs another day.

I decided that I’d go for something a little slower and easier to capture in a picture. So here they are – the late hatch of caterpillars that have been laying waste to our nasturtiums for the last week. They are still there today, chewing voraciously. Somehow, despite the lack of fins, they remind me of Great White Sharks.

After trying the caterpillar identifier and calling up a number of species that I’ve never heard of (who ever thought of calling something the Lead-coloured Lichen Moth?). The fact that the moth isn’t lead-coloured and only seems to be found in North America merely add to the mystery of moths.

Of course, it isn’t a rarity. But for just one moment, rather like the instant  just before you check your lottery ticket, there was a world of potential awaiting. They are just the caterpillars of the Large White. Hungry ones at that. You’d have thought that the birds could have made an effort and eaten them. So much for permaculture…