When Nancy and I were in Nanaimo, I took some photos of a web of caterpillars that were on a bush alongside the path we were on. More recently, we were up near Bembridge windmill on the Isle of Wight so I could take some photos of the windmill as the evening sun was lighting it up. As I walked back to the car, I could see something in the hedges and went to take a look. Tuns out it was the same thing. Seeing such a dense cluster of caterpillars is a touch surprising and I would have spent longer checking them out but the others were waiting for me, so I made it quick.
Tag Archives: caterpillar
A Fluffy Caterpillar
No deep insight, equipment review or technique experimentation for this one. I was out in the back yard and a caterpillar was in the grass. The black and orange coloration combined with the hairy coat it had just seemed like it deserved to be photographed. A quick grab of the camera with a macro lens and a few shots and then I left it to do whatever it was doing.
Caterpillars on the Branches

I was walking along the street in Nanaimo and noticed a bush with branches that had what looked like spider webs on them. I stopped to take a look and realized that it wasn’t spiders, it was caterpillars. (I should note at this point, that there are people who read this blog that will already be turning off because they do not enjoy my posts that involve bugs!) I don’t know much about caterpillars, but I am assuming that this was a nest of some sort for the next generation of caterpillars. However, there were plenty of them on the outside crawling around. It was quite a strange looking sight. I couldn’t resist getting some shots of them before heading on.

The Motion Of A Caterpillar
I have recently come across a couple of caterpillars during my wanderings. One of them was in the parking lot at work while another was out on a trail. Caterpillars are strange creatures because they only have a few “legs” which are bunch up together with one other at the other end of the body. No doubt, a specialist would be cringing right now at the inadequacy of my description. The result is that the motion of the body is quite complex. Video is the best way to demonstrate this so I used the phone to get some footage including when the sun angle really helped to emphasize the complexity of the movement.
Caterpillar Convention
If you don’t like bugs, this post isn’t for you. While up in the Cascades, we saw this web full of caterpillars. I don’t know the purpose of them being together in these numbers. Perhaps they are all recently hatched (is that the right term for a caterpillar) and have yet to go on their way or maybe there is another reason. Either way, there were a lot of them in one place. If you are a caterpillar predator, I wonder why this was not seen as a buffet?
Botanic Garden
The Botanic Garden in Balboa Park is apparently one of the most popular visitor locations in the city. It isn’t hard to see why since it is densely packed with all manner of vegetation, much of which is beautiful to look at. From tiny plants and delicate orchids to great ferns and palms, there is plenty for the visitor to see. And, there are plenty of visitors! The place has never been quiet whenever I have been there and this visit was certainly no exception.
Not only is it a popular place for people, the local wildlife also seems to like what it has to offer. Birds are flying around at the entrance all the time. I also saw a pretty cool looking caterpillar on a plant just outside the door. I don’t know whether it considered the plant life inside to be tastier and couldn’t get in or whether it was happy munching on what it had. It certainly seemed to be well fed, though.
The garden is not huge so, with everyone squeezed in, it feels pretty busy. Some people are looking at everything, others seem to be just enjoying the overall ambience. For many of the children it seemed to be a chance to see how many of the signs they could ignore by standing on things that weren’t to be stood on or touching things that were not supposed to be touched! I enjoyed the shape and style of the building as much as the plants. It calls out for playing with either a really wide angle lens or a longer lens to compress features. I had to make do with what I had with me.