Double cross

I'm going to seem like a leg fetishist after yesterday, but I couldn't resist the almost-human pose of this Poplar Hawk which proved its longevity by coming to the trap again; another visit next week and it - or its relatives - will be into their fourth month.

I wonder if I'll ever find a moth resting one calf on the other thigh, a habit which Ian Fleming once described as the sure sign of a young English man. When I was a YEM, I occasionally practised doing this in France, but nobody ever came up to me and asked: 'Is the name Bond? James Bond?'

Things are quiet otherwise, or rather unspectacular. There was a nice Peppered moth in the trap this morning, a score of Large Yellow Underwings, half-a-dozen Dark Arches, three Shuttle-shaped Darts (left) and at least another 20 smaller bods. So even a quiet night shows, yet again, how much starts happening after the sun goes down.