Yellow belts

It’s the hour that the greyness comes, as the sun sets, shadows lengthen and a fading yellow band retreats below the horizon. We’re searching for Little Owls again, in vain.

On the grass we can see a day-flying moth:

It looks like a Yellow Belted Burnet moth, Amata phegea.

Five minutes later I turn and take a photograph looking the other way:

Only a minute later and the grass is black against the blackness of the field.

The Yellow Belted Burnet likes warm, dry and sunny conditions. It’s perfectly adapted for here in the south of Italy. Do I need to tell you it doesn’t breed in the UK?