Moth Box & Highland Road Cemetery.

Wednesday 7th August 2024.

The small and the large. A Black-banded Masoner micro moth next to a Jersey Tiger moth.

Despite a bright start to the day, the moth numbers were a lot lower than yesterday and nothing new in the Moth Box either to add to the year's tally. A couple of Jersey Tigers were present and probably yesterday's Garden Tiger and Canary-shouldered Thorn were present. The first Large Pale Masoner micro moth of the month was present and both Chestnut Tortrix and Rusty-dot Pearl added a bit of interest among the micro moths. There were 64+ moths of 28 species recorded today.

The Large Pale Masoner micro moth.

The moths present this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTHS:

• Jersey Tiger 2
• Garden Tiger
• Canary-shouldered Thorn
• Double-striped Pug 4
• Lime-speck Pug 3
• Common Rustic
• Shuttle-shaped Dart 6
• Willow Beauty 4
• Brimstone Moth 5
• Riband Wave
• Pale Mottled Willow 3
• Bright-line Brown-eye
• Small Dusty Wave
• Garden Carpet 5
• Buff Ermine

MICRO MOTHS:

• Apple Leaf Miner
• Bird-cherry Ermine 5
• Garden Grey
• Chestnut Tortrix 2
• Light Brown Apple Moth
• Garden Pebble
• Rusty-dot Pearl
• Common Plume 7
• White-shouldered House Moth
• Large Pale Masoner
• Black-banded Masoner 3
• Ruddy Streak
• Bramble Shoot Moth

A Candy-striped Spider was under the rainguard.

As I have written before, the Moth Box sometimes attracts different insects and this morning, a rather colourful Candy-striped Spider was resting under the rain guard. Apart from the noisy Herring Gulls, nothing flew over of note this morning.

The view from the second and new bench overlooking the Cemetery looking west.

This afternoon, my wife suggested we go for a walk and so I grabbed the dogs and we took a walk around Highland Road Cemetery. It has been a long while since my wife has walked around here and as she has dodgy knees currently, so we took a slow amble around the perimeter footpath.

An adult Lesser Black-backed Gull was a surprise while Becky and I were sitting on the bench. The bird did not linger, sadly and flew off westbound over the houses. Below, the Autumn fruits are coming out now including the Horse Chestnuts and the Blackberries from the many Bramble bushes here.

Again, it was very quiet for birds with the black & white Carrion Crow probably taking the highlight as I pointed out to Becky the various flowers growing here in the Cemetery. I think Becky was more interested in the gravestones and some of the very overgrown graves over on the east side. Some are literally covered in either trees, bushes or Ivy; but I explained to her that it is the responsibility of the families to clear the graves. Most of the graves here are over 100 years old and I suppose the families have either moved away or passed away!

Above, the only butterfly seen during our walk round was this Red Admiral and below, I pointed out this Lady Bedstraw plant to Becky who exclaimed 'you could be telling me anything on what it is!'. As if I would!

We did see the one butterfly, a Red Admiral that though flushed, returned to rest on a gravestone but eventually flew off, but not before I grabbed a photo of this attractive insect. We found the new Bench so Becky could have a rest. I picked out a large Gull flying off westbound over the Cemetery and using the camera, it was in fact an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, The skies were looking quite dark over to the west and so we made our way back home.

The micro moth, Thatched Neb, that was on my kitchen ceiling yesterday evening.

Later today, I found an interesting micro moth on our kitchen ceiling and on close inspection, it was my second Thatched Neb (Bryotropha basaltinella). While cleaning the garden briefly, a macro species flew up which turned out to be a Plumed Fan-foot! It looks like a good year for them, it seems. A Straw Dot moth was found near the kitchen as well. 

I took this photo a few days ago in my garden which shows a Thick-legged Hoverfly on a Smooth Sow-thistle flower head. My wife was not happy with the plant growing in one of the plant pots, but I explained to her that any flower in our garden producing the food our insects can benefit from, should be encouraged.

In Hampshire yesterday, Keyhaven Marshes held both Wood and Green Sandpiper again and a Little Stint flew in early in the morning. The immature Black Tern was among the many Common Terns off Hill Head though over in West Sussex, Church Norton scored with a Semi-palmated Sandpiper seen on and off within the harbour and viewed by the benches.