Something's in the Wood Pile

Caterpillar of the species swallowtail butterfly.

So we were stacking wood and Bill came across this little critter.
It's a cutie isn't it?

Now, I could be wrong and if someone knows different please let me know, but after some online research it turns out this is a caterpillar and it is one of the species of swallowtail butterfly (possibly the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail). If you google that you'll see they are beautiful and we have seen them here.

What's neat about this caterpillar is the markings that look like eyes, aren't. Those markings are part of its defence mechanism. The head is actually just beneath what looks like it's head.
Anyhoo, we thought it was very cool and I wanted to share it with you.
Nature, eh?