Bog Myrtle & Peat

This has been a great year for emperor moths, and I must have seen almost a dozen since the end of April. Usually I only see one or two, but both males and females have been quite conspicuous on the hill.

I even found a female’s forewing hanging in an old spider’s web below a thrush’s nest in the larch trees, where I assume the bird had brought home a bumper snack for its chicks. When you are used to worms, beetles and grubs, I daresay finding an emperor moth is like hitting the motherlode for a bird with a nest of hungry young.