The ghost and the yellow underwing

I was at a wedding in Wales this weekend - it was a brilliant and beautiful day, with no embarrassing dancing, drunk Uncles, or Conga-lines in sight!

However, the weekend didn't pass without drama - luckily, it just waited to happen once we were back at our B&B the next morning.

Feeling only a little worse for wear, I woke to find my roommate, Rose, scrabbling around her bed muttering about not being able to find either her jewellery bag, one earring (!), her blusher, her mirror, or her deodrant, all of which in our hurry to make the wedding on time she had left either on top of the chest of drawers, or on the floor.

After her hundredth 'but where could that have gone?', she finally turned to the chest of drawers, and opening the top drawer found all of the missing items neatly arranged, and definitely not missing. Adamant she hadn't put them in there, we joked that being in the attic room we were always ripe for having a ghostly visit, though we weren't expecting it would be one who obviously liked to tidy up after the guests!

Later, while Rose was recounting her strange experience to one of our other friends, Claire, and I was finishing packing my things away, I heard a yelp.

With a pounding heart, and worried that I too was obivously about to see an apparition (why else would they scream?!), I turned round to see both Rose and Claire drop to the floor.

I was very relieved to see that what had scared them was only a moth, which must have flown directly at their heads, spooking them at just the point when they were talking about ghosts.

I didn't get a very good view of the moth, but the flashes of orange and its large size told me it was probably a large yellow underwing. Although a fairly common and widespread sight in Britain, I'd not seen one before. Our brief encounter rounded off what had been an excellent few days, and brightened up the greyness of the morning we had woken up to.

You'll be pleased to know that the moth escaped through an open window, none the worse for being screamed at.

We, on the other hand, still aren't quite sure whether we had a ghostly encounter, or not......

Have you ever been scared by a wildlife encounter? Let me know by leaving a comment below.