It seems surprising to me that a rainy day walk can turn up moth sightings. I’m not talking about heavy rain – I probably wouldn’t be out in that – just a very slight drizzle, which in this week’s heat was actually quite refreshing. Only a few hardy Meadow brown butterflies flitted up as I passed by but the moths were more frequent than I expected.

Silver Y (Autographa gamma)
Late summer through to mid autumn is probably the best time to see these distinctive immigrants, though some hardy souls do manage to breed in Britain. I imagine this one wafting in from the Continent on last week’s hot southerly winds.

Common purple-and-gold (Pyrausta purpuralis)
I’ve seen quite a few of these tiny moths during my daily meanders, presumably because they have two broods each year and the second brood emerges right about now, July-August.

Shaded broad-bar (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)
Two of these beauties have popped up for me recently, one at Grangemoor Park, the other at Cosmeston, both quite light in colour, though a quick look at the images on the Butterfly Conservation website will show how variable they can be.

Common grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
I tend to avoid photographing the many grass moths that, like crickets and grasshoppers, flit up as my legs disturb them when I’m walking through longish grass or wildflowers, because they can be difficult to identify. Luckily, my local Twitter pal George, a senior moth ecologist at Butterfly Conservation, was able to put a name to this one very quickly. It’s a common grassland species that flies from June through to September.