Silver Y

I don't often fall back on a composite picture, but I really couldn't choose between these two images of a Silver Y moth (Autographa gamma). It shows the contrast between its appearance in action, as it collected nectar from deep inside the crocosmia/montbretia flowers, and its (dis)appearance when it stopped for a rest, folding its wings against the camouflaging stone wall. The moth's wing-beat is terrifically fast and without digital photography, enabling me to study its appearance, I'd probably never have been able to identify it based only on the grey blur that I saw with the naked eye. I certainly wouldn't have spotted the telltale 'Y' on its wing. It's a new species to me, but was in my faithful 'Collins Gem' butterfly book.