Sunday 28 July 2019

Travelling Tiger



While we were admiring the excellent caterpillars of Suffolk, the grandchildren got in touch from Walthamstow with entomological news of their own. "What is this moth, Grandpa?" they inquired in a message attached to the picture above.

I enlarged it as best I could and that was efficient enough to show - left - that it was a Jersey Tiger, a lovely bright creature which has long since expanded from its Channel Islands base and is now often seen in southern England, notably London.  The sighting rang a bell and, sure enough, I found that exactly a year ago, I wrote in a post here: 'The grandchildren's garden in Walthamstow gave me a lovely sighting, but no photo, of a Jersey Tiger, an immigrant moth making excellent progress in southern England.'  When I can find time, I must do some more comparisons between years; certainly, the occasional chances I get to look back and see what has come on a particular date in previous seasons, sow a consistent pattern.

The warm sunshine has meanwhile brought out the butterflies during the day and two of them, a Comma and fine new Peacock showed an interest in the moth trap:





There were lots of brown butterflies wafting about in the garden too, including this skipper - Small, I think - and a very nice Hedge Brown which had the good manners to open its wings and sunbathe, rather than clasping them tightly over its back as these types of butterfly often do.



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