My Olivedale Garden

Reflecting on the week Monday 21.02.2022 to Sunday 27.02.2022

I measured 60.7 mm of rain in the garden. However I can feel summer slipping away with cooler morning temperatures and later sunrises.

I posted 21 observations comprising 19 species.

I saw a new, for me, moth: a Siccia caffra (Speckled Grey Footman).

Then I happened to see a raptor overhead being harassed by 3 Pied Crows. I took a few shots even though it was at quite an altitude. I thought Yellow-billed Kite but could not make out yellow feet or bill. It was kindly IDed for me as a juvenile African Harrier-Hawk. This makes sense as I have quite often seen adults overhead.

Interesting to me was 2 sightings of wasps with prey.

In the first case I watched a small black wasp moving rapidly over the brick paving of my patio. The next time I saw it it had captured what looked like a young cricket. It dragged the cricket over to a hole. It then backed into the hole dragging the cricket in with it. It was IDed as Genus Liris in the Subfamily Crabroninae.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107367277

In the second case I noticed a wasp dragging a spider up my patio wall. It appeared as if the spiders legs had been removed. It was much larger than the wasp. Eventually the wasp carried it out of sight onto the roof of the patio. It was IDed as a Mud-nesting Spider Wasp; Tribe Ageniellini.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107533350

On the 5th of Feb I saw a Citrus Swallowtail (Papilio demodocus) caterpillar on a leaf of a lemon tree; very small and in its brown form.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/107619980
I brought it in to raise.
It is now many times larger and in its green form. I'm now waiting for it to pupate.

Publicado el lunes, 28 de febrero de 2022 a las 06:29 AM por doug263 doug263

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