In between rain showers yesterday, I spotted this Banded Woolly Bear caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella) at Huntley Meadows Park, my local marshland. Unlike this photographer, most of the wildlife seemed to be taking shelter from the rain, so I was particularly excited when I caught sight of this caterpillar as I was trudging through the wet, calf-high vegetation.
Folklore says that the width of the brown band is an indicator of the severity of the upcoming winter. I can never remember whether a narrow band means a severe winter or the opposite, but Google came to the rescue again and indicated sources that say a narrow band means a colder winter. If that’s right, we may be in for a mild winter, given the size of the broad brown area on this caterpillar. Of course, there is no real scientific basis for this folklore, but it’s probably about as reliable as the weather forecasters in this area, who are notoriously bad in predicting the weather. They claim that we live in a complicated meteorological area.
When I was photographing this caterpillar, I noticed that it had a number of water drops on its “fur” and I was happy to see that I was able to capture them. There is something magical about those little globes of water and light.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I’m hoping his forecast is a good one!
I’m hoping that we have just enough snow here this winter to make things beautiful, but not enough to make the commutes even more hellish that they already are. However, I am definitely not ready to think about winter. I’m just getting used to the idea that it is fall.
Those tiny little globes make everything better – funny how that works.
When you first said you couldn’t remember which band width meant what, I was about to conclude that it would never be wrong.
I like the way that you think, Lyle.
Oh, how I enjoy the insight of your site…sight…Mike.
I hate to dispel your optimistic notions of a mild winter, but I think wooly bear color patterns simply reflect their age– I.e., younger ones are browner, older ones are blacker. I wrote about this last fall, after someone asked me about the wooly bear-winter prediction myth. Check it out at http://bybio.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/woolly-bears-and-the-weather/
Thanks for reminding me of your posting (which I had read last year). I know it’s only folklore, but somehow I can’t help but recall it whenever I see a woolly bear. It’s kind of like the groundhog and its shadow–I doubt there is a good scientific basis for the idea that the presence or absence of a shadow is an indicator of how soon spring will come.
I agree about the water drops. It always makes me happy when I’m able to capture them in a photo.