Bang on cue, the biggest moth I can normally expect in the trap arrived yesterday - a day after I put a little poster on our village noticeboard telling people that six hawk moths were locally on the wing.
I mentioned that we should soon see the arrival of the Privet Hawk moth, and here he (or she) is; a beautiful creature which was accompanied by an Eyed and an Elephant Hawk as well as many smaller brethren.
It was blissful weather yesterday and I went for a wander round the well-tree-ed edge of a nearby field, hoping to see the first (and rather late) orchids of the year and perhaps some Common Blue and Marbled White butterflies, to join the Brimstones, Orange Tips, Holly Blues, Small and Large Whites and Speckled Woods which have all been around for while. No orchids and no Marbled Whites, but I saw one blue on the wing and stalked this pretty Cinnabar for several minutes.
Cinnabars are amazing little blotches of red in flight, whirring the lurid petticoats which they normally keep hidden beneath those handsome and rather military uniform-like forewings. Catching one of them in the air prompted me to take some more pictures of butterflies on the wing; a somewhat unrewarding past-time for someone with my limited photographic skills, but the courting Speckled Woods have come out reasonably.
Bang on cue, the biggest moth I can normally expect in the trap arrived yesterday - a day after I put a little poster on our village noticeboard telling people that six hawk moths were locally on the wing.
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