Tigers 2 - and other locals

The Scarlet Tiger invasion continued yesterday when Penny spotted another bright scrap of red on the roadside as we got home from a long walk and picnic lunch. It was a fourth Tiger, above, obligingly showing its glorious body - the part of moths which birds are after, but it would be a brave bird which tried nibbling this.

The moth appeared to be dead initially, but feebly revived in Penny's warm hand and we hid it safely deep in a bush. A robin was nearby and I was slightly tempted to leave the moth more obvious, to see if the colour-deterrence worked. But then I wondered how I would have felt if the bird had gobbled up the moth, and thought better of it.

That other day-flying moth, the Cinnabar, with its almost identical colour scheme to the Scarlet Tiger, was boldly in evidence on the outside of the moth trap this morning. But much colder temperatures, brought by the wind, had reduced the number of guests inside to very few. The most handsome was this male Buff Ermine with his paler, almost white, fur collar; a Costa Coffee moth.

I was interested, too, in this forlorn-looking chap who was lying upside down in an eggbox, like a student after an all-night party. The other day, a beautiful Mottled Beauty was too nimble for me, fluttering off before I could take its picture. This is another one, in no condition to get away. I left it safely under cover and hope that it revives.

On our picnic walk, P and I encountered our first Marbled White of the year and also this curiously-marked Gatekeepr or Hedge Brown, a species very well-named because it always confines its activities to the edge of fields. I've pootled about a little on the internet and think from UK Butterflies that this is a 'pathological aberration', which is to say, not a genetically different specimen but one with thin or missing scales on part of its wings (from birth, rather than owing to encounters with thorn bushes or birds).

Finally, the grandchildren emailed a photo of a very handsome caterpillar which they discovered on a similar walk in east London. After much head-scratching, I found a match in the Yellow-tail moth, which will turn up here later in the season. There was much WhatsApping as other members of the family joined in and my niece was inspired to produce the excellent linocut at the bottom of yet more tiger moths.