Grey day, glorious nature!
By lunchtime it was raining even harder and getting quite breezy. I walked into the kitchen just as a Jersey Tiger Moth fluttered gratefully to rest and shelter on the upright of the (open)window frame.
Jersey Tigers are strikingly attractive day and night flying moths with bright orange (rowan coloured!) hind wings. When they come to rest they become a perfect geometric triangle with a perfectly geometric design in black and cream. They don't, officially, live in Cornwall, at least not according to my Collins Gem guide to butterflies and moths, which gives their only winghold on Great Britain as Devon. When I first saw one five years ago, on brambles in Farm Lane just outside Churchtown Farm, I was so impressed that I contacted the local moth society, who said they knew of just one colony this side of the Tamar.
Two years later, a Jersey Tiger came in through my office window one summer night and knocked itself out trying to get into the ceiling light, landing with a crash on the carpet. I rescued it and when it came round transferred it to the hydrangea just outside the front door. Last summer and the summer before I have occasionally caught sight of one fluttering around outside the house, both back and front, but this is the first I have seen this year. I do so hope that they are making a go of it here in Cornwall...
By lunchtime it was raining even harder and getting quite breezy. I walked into the kitchen just as a Jersey Tiger Moth fluttered gratefully to rest and shelter on the upright of the (open)window frame.
Jersey Tigers are strikingly attractive day and night flying moths with bright orange (rowan coloured!) hind wings. When they come to rest they become a perfect geometric triangle with a perfectly geometric design in black and cream. They don't, officially, live in Cornwall, at least not according to my Collins Gem guide to butterflies and moths, which gives their only winghold on Great Britain as Devon. When I first saw one five years ago, on brambles in Farm Lane just outside Churchtown Farm, I was so impressed that I contacted the local moth society, who said they knew of just one colony this side of the Tamar.
Two years later, a Jersey Tiger came in through my office window one summer night and knocked itself out trying to get into the ceiling light, landing with a crash on the carpet. I rescued it and when it came round transferred it to the hydrangea just outside the front door. Last summer and the summer before I have occasionally caught sight of one fluttering around outside the house, both back and front, but this is the first I have seen this year. I do so hope that they are making a go of it here in Cornwall...
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