Warming up

There are signs that the prolonged spell of cold nights - in between lovely May days - is coming to an end. At my age, I should have known better, but we prematurely planted some dwarf French beanlets and they have all been slain by frost. The trap has been sparse with one night, a week ago, when nothing at all flew in. But things were better this morning.

I can record the year's first Maybug, for example. There were actually four of them, including one with ineptly-furled wings which initially had me thinking that its antennae were at the wrong end. It was upside-down in the bargain, always an ungainly position for a Maybug. I set it upright and left it to puzzle out the always-impressive amount of information about eggs which comes with even standard eggboxes these days. Albeit, upside down, as the moth had been until I intervened.

The year's first White Ermine arrived as well, a common but lovely moth. I have a friend in Salisbury who hosts regular explorations by moth enthusiasts looking for the much rarer Water Ermine in the riverside meadows. Rarer it may be but it is not as beautiful. Last year, I gave her some White Ermine chrysalises and she reported delightedly last week that the first had hatched (second picture below).

Finally for today, the year's second visit from a Poplar Hawk took place and, as usual, I couldn't resist teasing it into displaying the maroon warning marks on its hindwings. A gentle nudge on the nose had the apparently soporific insect displaying them with lightning speed - a defensive reaction, I am sure, rather than a thought-out decision.