August Moths

I went round to my neighbours this morning at 7:30 to see what they had in their moth trap. They were keen for me to identify a very large moth before it flew off, it's one they'd not seen before. The app identified it as clifden nonpareil and it was stunningly beautiful, particularly when its wings opened to show the vivid blue colour. I've added a collage to extras of the others seen including from top left a dusky thorn; pale eggar; two setaceous Hebrew characters; swallow prominent; box tree moth; lesser broad-bordered yellow underwing; plus two additional photos of the clifden nonpareil in the centre. As happened last month, a couple of wasps were also trapped which aggressively attacked the moths and killed one which was awful to see (the middle left photo shows the large moth's defensive reaction to this). There was also a European hornet that had been trapped. As the clifden nonpareil flew off it looked like a small bird, I looked it up and found out that it's wingspan is between 75 and 95mm!  It's a beautifully sunny and hot August bank holiday Monday - I sat outside from mid morning reading the paper which was fab. I will sit out again later this afternoon. I had been thinking of going to the Aylsham Show, but decided it was too hot to be there all day, and too expensive at £26 to be there for a couple of hours.