Plenty of colour in olde England too

After the vivid colours of Greece, I was prepared for a major change to the duller - if always interesting - hues of UK moths, especially as our first night back was quite chilly.  There was very little in the trap as a result but the following day - yesterday - saw the sun warm everything up and bring out those wonderful regular butterfly visitors, the Red Admiral and Painted Lady.

Their pictures head this post, with their respective underwings flanking these paragraphs. But the moths put on a terrific show this morning too. The night was much warmer than Sat/Sun and the eggboxes were full of yellow underwings, Burnished Brass, Hewbrew Character and loads of other regulars. The real glories though were in what almost amounted to a second trap, the long grass round the spot where I placed the light.

There have been lots of sightings of the wondrous Clifden Nonpareil, a very big moth with a lilac-banded hindwing which I much desire to meet; and because several of them seem to have preferred being near light traps rather than in them, I have been paying extra attention to the lamp's surroundings. When I saw the moth above, I briefly thought - Wooo! Is it a Nonpareil?  No, the little flash of red showed that it was that September regular, the Red Underwing. Not rare, but always extremely welcome.

Other outside-the-trappers included the August Thorn on the underside of the lamp rain-shield - a nice warm place to doze - with a second one below it on the bulb-holder, as well as the two Centre-barred Sallows and - not pictured - a pretty little Brimstone.

The highlight for me, though, was a Pale Eggar, not a rare moth but one which has only visited me once before, almost exactly five years ago to the day.  His fine antennae indicate that he is male.