You make your own luck

After yesterday's disappointing shoot, I managed to find an hour to head back the the great butterfly site I visited earlier in the month. It was sunny, reasonably warm and a little breezy, so I was hopeful. But in contrast to my last visit, this time there was very little on show. A few Common Blues (all female), a couple of whites and a grasshopper. I was thinking that Olympus, The God of Photography was punishing me for some unspecified transgression, but since I'm not superstitious, I decided I'd spit in his eye and took a short detour home to a nearby location where three years ago (but not since), I'd seen something interesting.

And within seconds, I found this Jersey Tiger Moth, Euplagia quadripunctaria, only the second I've ever seen. Unfortunately, this is a rather scruffy specimen, not a patch on the immaculate one I found three years ago. But I was still chuffed.

Technically, this is a better shot, but with the Jersey Tiger the startle red underwing is the money shot, so I've gone with that.