Sutton Hoo - Insect Eggs

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Sae Wylfing (scaled replica of the Sutton Hoo ship)

The Sae Wylfing vessel, designed along the lines of the Sutton Hoo ship, was on display at the site last weekend. Great attention has been paid to the craftsmanship and it was good to see.

However, it was not only the ship that vied for our attention. There may be few butterflies about but it seems a good season for insect eggs. We took these photos on the edge of the burial mound site.

I have not been able to identify the egg cluster on the two photographs immediately below. I am guessing that these are moth eggs. The Sutton Hoo landscape consists of sandy heath and grassland.

In my search I came across this rather interesting post about a parasitoid wasp emerging from the egg cases of a host species that had been laid on Stachys byzantina. 

The eggs below belong to the the Pine Hawk-moth, Sphinx pinastri. I blogged about these some days ago, and in case you missed the link to the caterpillar, which is rather striking, I will post it here. They are much smaller than they appear, but shown at this size, you can see the detail.

As we walked past a small heap of sandy soil, we noticed it move, and realised that there was a mole at work practically under our feet. Of course, the digging stopped as soon as the mole became aware of our presence. On our return, the mound had grown significantly in length. It is the closest I have (knowingly) come to one of these elusive creatures for a long time.

• Back in 2013 I found these mystery 'egg cases'.

Pine Hawk-moth eggs at NT Sutton Hoo

After recent days of grey cloud I was keen to make the most this afternoon's lovely weather. NT Sutton Hoo was looking at its best. The mounds are in the background and the Visitors' Centre is beyond. 

 The blue flowers on the right of the mound are Harebells (you can't tell from the photo!).

There was also a good sized patch of Scabious, however ...

... what excited me at the time, and even more afterwards when David checked his Twitter feed, were these small white eggs on one of the pine trees. The tree was just inside the central roped-off mound area, making it difficult to get close enough for my camera to allow me to take a good macro shot. But at least I have a record of what are (it seems) eggs of the Pine Hawk-moth, Sphinx pinastri.

I am giving this identification because a glance at Twitter revealed that Molly Carter - who tweets as ‏@CuratorMolly - had seen not only the eggs but also a magnificent caterpillar here at Sutton Hoo only a few days ago. You can take a look on her Twitter account by clicking here. You might also like to see this brilliant model!
 

Don't forget that it is Moth Night (which goes on until 12 September 2015). Next year's theme will be Hawk-moths.

One of the Sutton Hoo Kestrels this afternoon

When I was up at Sutton Hoo last time, the local Kestrels were making their presence felt. I was delighted to find that the pair were active again today.

Kestrel over the Sutton Hoo burial mounds

Autumn is beginning to have the upper hand, and we saw a lot of fungi around the site.

Is this a Parasol Mushroom?

As we turned to leave, we saw a Hornet (too quick for us to catch on camera, my fifth Hornet of the season) in a gorse bush along with this spider, who had no intention of going anywhere.