Christine's walking & birds blog

Yesterday

Up on the downs we paused to scan the dung heap, which was being picked over by chaffinches, linnets, yellow wagtails....well, the birds you'd expect to find there. Then this pair appeared on the skyline.

Blackcaps, chiffchaffs and willow warblers were in song, and an unseen lesser whitethroat warbled away quietly and then broke into a strong rattle. Quail were heard singing in four locations; they and a curlew flying past calling were the highlights of the walk.

Today I was walking up the garden path when this large and beautiful moth fluttered down onto the lawn. I thought it was a scrap of paper.

It's a Swallow-tailed Moth - apparently a common species but usually nocturnal. I was lucky to see it, and lucky that it stayed still long enough to get a picture; so I won't complain about it being half in the sun and half in the shade.