Largest haul of moths this year by far!

Sunday 28th August 2022.

My first Clancy's Rustic of the year.

I was up at stupid o’clock this morning (3.30am) due to simply waking up and not being able to fall back asleep again and therefore got dressed and made my way downstairs without waking up my wife. Not easy, but I managed it. I made coffee, took a walk into the back garden and admired a good number of moths already gathered on the white sheet. Looking up, the planet Jupiter and the Milky Way was simply stunning and watching the moths flying high over, caught in the light of the moth box, whizzing over like small meteorites! That's my best attempt at poetry. 

My first Old Lady moth of the year, dwarfing the Vine's Rustic below it. 

I still had a few hours to go before dawn and therefore spent the next couple of hours on the laptop. My wife eventually came down as she could not sleep and so I made my way out into the garden to check out the moth box. There were an incredible 176 moths of 43 species recorded this morning, nearly taking me an hour to go through them all and even longer to write this lot down! Yet another two new species for the year included an Old Lady and a Clancy’s Rustic; two quality moths for this time of year. Yesterday’s Large Thorn was present again perched on our neighbour's wall and two Blair’s Mocha were present.

The two different types of Blair's Mocha in my garden this morning.

There were also double figures of Lime-speck Pug, Square-spot Rustic, Double-striped Pug and 20 each of Vine’s Rustic, Box Tree Moth and Pale Mottled Willow! Migrant moths today included Pearly Underwing, Silver Y, White-point, Clancy’s Rustic, Rusty-dot Pearl and Rush Veneer.

This Peacock butterfly caterpillar was just outside the front door of my house yesterday afternoon. 

While I was checking out the stars at 3.30am in the morning, I had the fright of my life when a probable Grey Heron called overhead. I could not see the bird, but its call was very loud!

The moths present this morning included the following:

• 2 Pearly Underwing
• 6 Willow Beauty
• 13 Lime-speck Pug
• 1 Garden Carpet
• 15 Square-spot Rustic
• 12 Double-striped Pug
• 20 Vine’s Rustic
• 2 Blair’s Mocha
• 3 Garden Tiger
• 3 Small Dusty Wave
• 2 Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
• 1 Lesser Yellow Underwing
• 2 Bright-line Brown-eye  
• 20 Pale Mottled Willow
• 2 Large Yellow Underwing
• 3 Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 3 L-album Wainscot
• 1 Old Lady (NFY)
• 1 Garden Carpet
• 1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
• 1 Angle Shades
• 1 Silver Y
• 1 White-point
• 1 Clancy’s Rustic (NFY)
• 1 Common Rustic agg.
• 2 Marbled Beauty
• 1 Large Thorn
• 2 Brimstone Moth
• 1 Riband Wave
• 20 Box Tree Moth
• 6 Common Plume
• 5 Apple Leaf Miner
• 1 Rusty-dot Pearl
• 2 Garden Pebble
• 2 Broom Shoot Moth
• 2 Beautiful Plume
• 1 Gypsonoma dealbana
• 3 Rush Veneer
• 5 Agriphila geniculea
• 2 Celypha striana
• 1 Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner
• 1 Tachystola acroxantha
• 1 Blastobasis adustella