Despite a couple of days of cool rain this week, the cumulative effects of last week’s heat and southerly winds and today’s intermittent sunshine have brought us the first migrant Lepidoptera of the season. I actually saw my first Silver Y moth last week but, during today’s walk, another flitted up and away as I walked past, settling amongst a patch of long grass, quivering for 30 seconds or more as they do before stilling itself.

And today’s walk also produced my first Painted lady butterfly, looking remarkably well considering it had probably recently arrived from France, Portugal or Spain. The migration journeys of these smaller invertebrates never cease to astonish me.