An amazing moth day.

Friday 24th June 2022.

This superb Privet Hawk-moth was on the egg tray beside my moth box this morning.

A clear and cool start to the morning and a little later than normal in the garden when I surfaced from my bed at 5am! You do think the worse that the Sparrows have had a good chomp of my moths, but surprisingly, the white sheet held some moths and a few nice surprises too. There was talk of thunderstorms overnight, but nothing materilised there either, so I needn't have bothered with the rain guard. A total of 57 moths of 32 species were recorded this morning including a superb Privet Hawk-moth resting on one of outside egg trays and also the micro moth Bird-cherry Ermine, though one has to be careful with this species as they have a few very similar species of which some have to be dissected to check the genitalia through a microscope. No thanks! The Privet Hawk-moth posed nicely on my finger as I then placed it gently in one of my hanging baskets. A few moments later, it had flown off while I was checking the moths. My fourth species of Hawk-moth for the year in my garden.  

Some mad looking bloke by my moth box!

One of the UK's largest moths and a cracker too.

The following moths were recorded this morning:

• 3 Riband Wave
• 1 Privet Hawk-moth (NFY)
• 3 White Ermine
• 3 Common Emerald
• 3 Heart & Dart
• 2 L-album Wainscot
• 2 Lime-speck Pug
• 1 Common Pug
• 2 Double-striped Pug
• 3 Bright-line Brown-eye
• 3 Box-tree Moth
• 3 Willow Beauty 
• 2 Uncertain
• 2 Pale Mottled Willow
• 1 Twenty-plume Moth
• 1 Large Yellow Underwing
• 1 Vines Rustic
• 1 MARBLED CORONET (Lifer & NFY)
• 3 Bee Moth
• 4 Brown House Moth
• 1 Bryotropha domestica
• 1 Bird-cherry Ermine (NFY)
• 1 Mompha subbistrigella
• 1 Ephestia woodiella
• 2 Eudonia lacustrata
• 1 Chrysoteuchia culmella
• 1 Diamond-back Moth
• 1 Celypha striana
• 1 Cypress-tip Moth
• 1 Cherry-bark Moth
• 1 Common Plume
• 1 Udea fulvalis

The first Bird-cherry Ermine of the year. They can be awfully tricky to ID.

My first Marbled Coronet ever and confirmed by the Hants Moths recorder.  

Over at Portchester Crematorium this morning, I found another small selection of moths around the South Chapel exit and around the Flower Bay that included the following:

• 1 White Ermine
• 1 Small Dusty Wave
• 2 Bee Moth
• 1 Metalampra italica (NFY)
• 1 Oegoconia quadripuncta
• 2 Common Plume
• 1 Beautiful Plume
• 1 Large Tabby (Lifer & NFY)

The micro moth Metalampra italica. I occasionally get these in my moth box but this one was found by the South Chapel exit at Portchester Crematorium this morning. 

I did find another moth at the Crematorium, which I managed to pot and take home to get a better look, but it has stumped me and I have to ask the experts for their opinion on the Hants Moths Facebook page. This evening, I got a real surprise as the moth was in fact a Large Tabby moth, a 'lifer' for me personally! I am absolutely gobsmacked and has taken me by surprise to say the least. Another one of those rather large 'micro moths'!Happy days.

This Large Tabby moth at Portchester Crematorium was a big surprise and I would like to thank Sarah Patton for identifying it for me.

Not all that many birds noted today, but a few Common Buzzards seen flying around the M275 and a male Kestrel flying low over the Crematorium. One of my work colleagues found a superb female Ghost Moth by the main entrance of The Oaks Crematorium yesterday afternoon! Incredible, seeing I have only ever seen two of this species in all the time I have been ‘Moth-ing’!  

The female Ghost Moth that was found by one of our work members at The Oaks Crematorium yesterday. Photo by Jack Hodges. 

One of the Roseate Terns off Hill Head this morning. Photo by Mark Francis.

A pair of Roseate Terns were fishing off Hill Head around 11am this morning, seen by one of the ‘Lazee Birder’ gang  members for around an hour, but no further sign later in the day among the many Terns offshore. Tonight, I have just had it confirmed that a Varied Coronet I thought I had in my garden this morning was in fact my first ever Marbled Coronet! Yet another 'lifer' for my moth life list. Incredible!