Final moult in progress!

One of the wild cats I'm following in Switzerland is laid up for his final moult. As Matthew noted in his last post, this corresponds to a potential flight time of mid-June, depending on the weather between now and then:

(Hostilian laid up for ecdysis)

His neighbour on the same bush, Quintillus, is fat and large and will doubtless lay himself up soon:

Of nine cats I am tracking I was able to find just five yesterday and four today. The missing ones may well have gone wandering. My experience is that predation is low at this time of year and sometimes I lose track of an individual for some days or even weeks only to find it again later back in its original leaf bunch.

This is Novus, today, on his silken leaf pad:

Guy