Saturday, August 27, 2011
A moth and a butterfly
A Hummingbird Hawk-moth was in the garden this morning. It flew over to check me out, (a blur of red moving at incredible speed), zoomed over the wall and was gone.
Swinley Forest and Wishmoor provided a nice walk with patches of purple heather, a few warblers and eight stonechats. A large, rather sombre, grey-brown and orange butterfly caught my eye at the woodland edge. It flew strongly and with less fluttering than most butterflies; and when it landed it immediately closed its wings and seemed to lean over to one side.
This was my first Grayling butterfly. It's relatively common, widespread on coasts and southern heaths. The tilting to one side has "authorities" divided as to whether this is done to maximise exposure to the sun or to minimise the insect's shadow on the ground. I think the second is a bit suspect while the first seems more reasonable; but either way it's a characteristic of the species.// posted by Christine @ 12:50 PM 
