Cuckoos
5th May 2012, Saturday
With this declining summer visitor so much in the news recently - click here I havent heard anyone question their food supply here in Britain. They specialise on eating hairy caterpillars and it is generally accepted that populations of moths have declined. Here at Rye Harbour the population of cuckoos is steady AND there are many hairy caterpillars available. Even in this cold wet weather it is easy to find two species of large hairy caterpillar on the shingle habitat - the irritating brown-tail moth and the nationally rare pale grass eggar - and it is easy to watch the cuckoos eating them…
pale grass eggar
brown tail moth - do not touch, the hairs can be irritating