Hawthorn Moth added to year list.

Thursday 8th June 2023.

This micro moth, a Hawthorn Moth, was the only new moth for the year.

Another 4.30am start this morning to check the moth box and I was rewarded with just the one new moth for the year, the micro moth Scythropia crataegella or better known as Hawthorn Moth. Pretty little thing with its white body with two angled brown stripes. My second Diamond-back Moth of the year was also present; another micro moth that is a common immigrant from the Continent. I am led to believe that the wind is to be blowing from the south for the rest of the week and could bring a lot of immigrant moths into the UK. However, it was absolutely ‘Bill-Oddie’ freezing this morning with a swirling wind making the temperature around 8 degrees! It’s June for f*** sake!

Another Blair's Mocha turned up this morning within the box.

Yes, it should be getting a lot warmer later and well into the 20 degree’s centigrade, thankfully. Back to the moths and there was a reasonable haul that was mostly within the moth box with another Blair’s Mocha and Silver Y being probably the best of the other moths. A total of 23 moths of 13 species wasn't too bad, but still relatively low for this time of year. 

My second Diamond-back Moth of the year. Should the winds turn to southerly as expected, I will probably be getting a lot more of these in and around the moth box.

Moths present this morning included the following:

• 1 Large Yellow Underwing
• 1 Common Marbled Carpet
• 1 Silver Y
• 2 White Ermine
• 1 Lime-speck Pug
• 1 Common Pug
• 1 Blair’s Mocha
• 1 Garden Carpet
• 1 Bright-line Brown-eye
• 3 Heart & Dart
• 4 Vine’s Rustic
• 1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
• 5 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 1 Diamond-back Moth
• 1 Hawthorn Moth (NFY)
• 1 Mompha subbistrigella

There was also another surprise within the moth box when I found my first Summer Chafer beetle of the year on one of the outside egg trays. Tricky little bugger in trying to pick it up for it liked to go upside down with feet splayed, but it eventually made its way to cover within one of my plants.

The moth box can attract a variety of other invertebrates that included this Summer Chafer beetle.

I am pleased to say that at least three of the House Sparrows nestlings fledged and were being fed by the parents in the back of my garden yesterday, as my wife and I watched them being fed by the parents, while they flapped their wings and showing off their yellow gapes around their bills. Cute. However, danger did lurk, as something flew into the big tree by my garden and flushed a lot of the birds out. I thought it was going to be a Sparrowhawk, but what eventually flew out was a Jay! After watching a Jay decimate several nests on Springwatch over the past week, I am not surprised that it was on a mission to look for eggs and young of birds; though I am getting a bit fed up with the ‘wet blankets’ out there who say it is too graphic to show on Springwatch. Nature is nature, whether with ‘rose-tinted glasses’ or not.

Above, a Hairy Dragonfly and below, a female Broad-bodied Chaser Dragonfly. Photos by Jim Walker who photographed these at Titchfield Haven recently.

I get to identify some moths and insects from fellow ‘Lazee’s’ and friends now and then and last night, fellow ‘Lazee’, Andy Dickety sent me a photo of a Silver-ground Carpet that he found at Bransbury Common, Winchester. Keep the photos coming in guys. Fishlake Meadows, over in Romsey, scored last night with an adult Night Heron being seen in the early evening and then right up to dusk. There was also a White Stork sailing over, 2 Hobbies and up to 3 Great White Egrets reported there yesterday.