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On the 4th of July we went to a parade, as some of you may recall. When we came home from the parade, we were greeted by a visitor at the end of our driveway. More specifically, a visitor hanging on the side of a tree near the end of our driveway.

He was rather conspicuous, so much so that I am pretty sure he was not there when we left. But there he was, not moving, just waiting for us to find him.

Here is his picture:

As you can see, he was the friendly sort. Didn’t say much though. His type doesn’t come around our house much either, so it was a big deal to meet one of him in real life. I stopped the van at the end of the driveway and had the kids get out to look at him.

I pulled him off the tree. Well, I saw that he was clinging to a piece of bark that was pretty loose on the tree. So rather than actually touch our visitor, I just broke the bark off the tree and held that.

One of the kids didn’t want to get close to him, so he just watched from a safe distance. Our oldest, however, took the piece of bark and inspected this strange creature.

As you can see, he had a bit of trepidation about the whole thing. I suppose “he” could apply to either the human or the moth. Shortly after this picture, the moth fell off the bark and into the lawn. After a couple of fruitless attempts to get him back on the bark, I just left him in the grass. I didn’t want any well-intentioned rescue attempts to damage him.

At first, since we never see this kind of moth, we thought that we had found some rare breed, an exotic species that had escaped from someone’s collection. Instead, I found out that these moths (Luna moths, AKA Actias luna) are common, just not usually seen because of their short lifespan (a week at best).

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?”
– Psalm 8:3-4