Two new moths for the year.

Wednesday 12th July 2023.

Two Least Carpet moths were present today.

A clear sky first thing this morning, with Herring Gulls making an awful din nearby and the light hum of a Buff-tailed Bumblebee nectaring on my Lavender plants sets the scene for another stupidly early morning forage in and around the moth box. Slightly cooler of late as well, with a light westerly breeze on a 16 degree centigrade temperature. Before checking the moth box, I put out the dried Mealworms for the House Sparrows to keep them away from my moth box for a while. I would have put the moth box on Sunday night, but the weather forecast predicted rain overnight and again, they were so wrong!

Marsh Dowd finally arrived to my moth box.

To the moths. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the lack of moths, with hardly any at all within the moth box itself. The only good news is that my first Least Carpets of the year were present; one in the box and one outside nearby. Also, my first Marsh Dowd ( Blastobasis rebeli) micro moths of the year were present, close to one another on the white sheet.

Common Rustic agg. One of hardly any moths within the moth box. 

A total of just 31 moths of 19 species were recorded today, with most being micro moths, but at least there were moths to look at. Least Carpet is an irregular visitor to my garden and a good moth to record too, whereas the Marsh Dowd is also quite a scarce moth. It is from the island of Madeira and somehow, like a lot of the Blastobasis micro moth species, found its way to both Hampshire and West Sussex.

Moths recorded this morning included the following:

• 3 Riband Wave
• 1 Lackey
• 2 Double-striped Pug
• 2 Least Carpet (NFY)
• 1 Lime-speck Pug
• 3 Silver Y
• 1 Heart & Dart
• 1 Common Rustic
• 2 Marsh Dowd (NFY)
• 1 Common Plume
• 2 Dingy Dowd
• 1 Golden-brown Tubic
• 1 Brown House Moth 
• 3 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 1 Box Tree Moth
• 1 Rosy Tabby
• 2 Ruddy Streak
• 2 Garden Grass-veneer
• 1 Barred Marbled

The Roller on Brading Marshes, Isle of Wight. The bird was always distant hence the photo. A top rarity that many a birder would love to see. Photo by Steve Fruin.