100+ Moths again.

Wednesday 31st August 2022.

Yellow Shell always adds a splash of colour to the moth box!

The last day of August already and it certainly was a bit nippy this morning at 6.15am. Despite a cold and breezy start, there was quite a few moths again first thing, although there was nothing new for the year today. 122 moths of 37 species were noted today including such good moths as Yellow Shell, Lychnis and Bloxworth Snout; the latter being some distance away from the moth box and quite lucky that I found it perched on the fence panel halfway up the garden! 

A rather smart Pearl Underwing.

Easily the most numerous moths were the Pale Mottled Willows with 24 being counted and 10 Square-spot Rustics. Nothing unusual among the macro moths today, however, I have to say that the very small Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner is such a pretty moth. Just a shame I have not the equipment to get a blown-up photo of it.

The Bloxworth Snout. A late individual for the year.

Birding pal, James Cutting, had a Vestal moth on his moth box last night. I have just had a message to say that a Tree Sparrow has been seen and heard at Gilkicker Point this morning. That would make a really good ‘year-tick’ for many birders. Lucky for me, I saw some in Norfolk earlier this year.

Above, a Lychnis moth and below, a strange looking Square-spot Rustic, although they do vary in colour.

The moths present this morning included the following:

• 1 Large Yellow Underwing
• 1 Pearly Underwing
• 5 Vine’s Rustic
• 2 Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 1 Brimstone Moth
• 24 Pale Mottled Willow
• 4 Willow Beauty
• 1 Lychnis
• 7 Bright-line Brown-eye
• 1 Angle Shades
• 7 L-album Wainscot
• 4 Small Dusty Wave
• 4 Lime-spot Pug
• 6 Double-striped Pug
• 1 Bloxworth Snout
• 10 Square-spot Rustic
• 3 Silver Y
• 1 Garden Carpet
• 1 Yellow Shell
• 2 Yellow-barred Brindle
• 1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
• 3 Marbled Beauty
• 2 Riband Wave
• 3 Broom Shoot Moth
• 3 Agriphila geniculea
• 2 Rusty-dot Pearl
• 1 Brown House Moth
• 4 Common Plume
• 3 Beautiful Plume
• 1 White-shouldered House Moth
• 1 Box Tree Moth
• 3 Clepsis consimilana
• 1 Monopsis crocicapitella
• 5 Apple Leaf Miner
• 1 Tachystola acroxantha
• 1 Horse-chestnut Leaf Miner
• 1 Bryotropha affinis

As we have come to the end of August, I thought I would have an update on the amount of moths seen during this month and it was 128 species in total, that included 55 macro moths and 74 micro moths. 21 species, mostly micro moths, were new to my life list and of course, the Striped Hawk-moth probably capped the lot. What a moth. For 2022 so far, 258 moths have been recorded so far (140 macro + 118 micro moths) and on the birding front, I am on 205 species for the year. Today, the Pectoral Sandpiper was still on Butts Lagoon, Pennington Marshes and sharing the same pool with 3 Little Stints and a Curlew Sandpiper.