Clifden Nonpareil (Catocala fraxini, #689)

This beauty flew in through my son’s window; I didn’t see it, but at least he took a photo. This is the second Clifden Nonpareil we’ve seen in our Gloucestershire garden, the previous one being in Sept 2020. Until a few years ago this was a super-rare moth in UK, but it is getting commoner and maybe 2025 is another good year for the species.

August Moths

This is a selection of moths from last weekend (17/8). The Canary-shouldered Thorn is particularly cute and fluffy.

Mottled Beauty & Least Yellow Underwing

This morning’s stars were two new moths for my garden, Least Yellow Underwing (Noctua interjecta) and Mottled Beauty (Alcis repandata), among another big catch (132 moths of 44 species). As summer progresses there start to be more and more Yellow Underwings of different species, and the first Common Rustics.

A Sad-looking Lawn

The dried out lawn is looking pretty sad and brown. About the only flower left is Yarrow, which can obviously tolerate drought. Usually I would have mowed off the flower heads, but it seems a waste of time to mow the few spikes of grass seed-heads and plantain flowers that are poking up out of the dead turf. Besides it’s too hot! Talking Plantains, I noticed this mildew on some of the leaves; it is a mildew specific to Plantago species called Golovinomyces sordidus, a species I didn’t notice before.

Butterflies

Despite the sunny, warm days earlier in the year there were not that many butterflies, but with the current heatwave there start to be a lot, including species like Common Blue and Gatekeeper that I don’t see every year. So far 10 species this weekend: Small & Large White, Common & Holly Blue, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Red Admiral, Peacock, Comma and Brimstone, plus a Hummingbird Hawkmoth visiting the lavender.

4th July Moths

A few different moths today, including two new ones: Brown-line Bright-eye (Mythimna conigera, #1025), which I also caught while trapping at a neighbour’s a few days ago, and Beech Mast Piercer (Cydia fagiglandana, #1026), a micro found around Beech trees. Still plenty of moths about - 94 individuals of 27 species recorded. All four below are “summertime” moths that fly in a single generation during July-August.

Heatwave Moths #2

The conditions are too good, so I was trapping again last night; this time at home. There were lots of great moths (134 moths of 37 species), including no less than 8 Elephant Hawk Moths and 5 Ruby Tigers. Two new species. Bordered Beauty (Epione repandaria) and Many-plumed Moth (Alucita hexadactyla), and some others that I didn’t feature yet this season are pictured below.

Heatwave Moths

Another warm night, this time trapping in the garden of some local friends. Didn’t catch as many moths as maybe I expected, but still a good variety and plenty of new ones for this year. Brown-line Bright-eye is not one that I’ve caught before.

Leaf-mines on Poppy & Sweet Pea

These leaf mines are caused by the larvae of small flies burrowing through the leaves. Miners are specific to different families of plant. The pea leaf mine, Liriomyza pisivora, is one I haven’t recorded previously in the garden.

More Midsummer Moths

As well as the hawk moths and other interesting macros, the moth trap attracted a wide supporting cast of smaller moths: pugs, grass moths, greys and other micros. Here is a selection of the 44 species I was able to identify.

Scarlet Tigers and Hawk-moths

UK’s mini-heatwave means there’s plenty of moths. There were twenty-five Scarlet Tigers in and around the moth trap this morning, and three types of hawk-moth: Elephant, Small Elephant and Poplar.

Lobster Moth & Buff Arches

A couple of new moths among a big haul of moths this morning. Lobster Moth, so named because of its very ugly crustacean-like caterpillars, is a fairly large woodland species found around beech & birch trees. Buff Aches is a very handsome moth whose caterpillars can be found on brambles. Both species fly in one generation around mid-summer.

11 June Moths

Taking advantage of a lovely warm, still and dry evening, I caught a good selection of moths, including my first Elephant Hank-moths of the year.

Hogweed Flower Beetles

Lots of beetles taking pollen on the Hogweed flowers at Kemerton Lakes Nature Reserve. Mostly they were Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis), of which there were very many, but I did also find this nicely marked Black & Yellow Longhorn (Rutpela maculata).

1st June Moths

Not an ideal night for trapping, as it was a bit windy, but more moths again - 51 moths of 30 species, including several new ones for the year. Swallow-tailed Moth, The Miller and Common Carpet are not ones I catch very often.

Green Dock Beetle - Gastrophysa viridula

This Dock leaf has been reduced to a lace-like skeleton. Turning it over the culprits are small black larvae of the Green Dock Beetle (Gastrophysa viridula).

Juvenile Jackdaw

This juvenile Jackdaw got itself grounded in our alley and couldn’t get airborne again. I put it up on a neighbouring roof to give it some height and get it away from the local cats, while all the other jackdaws in the area flew around checking what was going on. After a while an adult bird came down to check on the youngster, and then afterwards when I next looked both birds had gone - hopefully to somewhere safer.