disrupting a woolly bear caterpillar’s journey

11.16.23

When we came home from food shopping this morning there was a woolly bear on our sidewalk! I hurried inside to get my camera. When I returned I tried to give it a ride to a safer location and it responded by curling up into a little ball. Putting it on this leaf I went back inside to put away the groceries.

When I came back out it was on the move again, away from the leaf.

But then it circled back to reconsider its options, and I got a picture of those little eyes surveying the possibilities.

And finally it decided to return to the leaf. With a little luck it might find a good spot to overwinter here.

On the news I learned that North Carolina has had a Woolly Worm Festival in the town of Banner Elk over the third weekend of October ever since 1978. That’s also how I learned that they call them woolly worms down here. Growing up in New England, they were always woolly bears to me!