Monday, June 9, 2025

My fourth species of Hawk-moth.

Monday 9th June 2025.


My first Pine Hawk-moth of the year.


Back to the working week and of course, my day kicked off with the Moth Box. It was overcast this morning with a light south-westerly blowing over the garden and the forecast today looks to be dry throughout the day. I never had the Moth Box on overnight yesterday due to the inclement weather on Saturday so I had to put it on last night and again, it delivered some very nice moths.


The Moth Box:


My first Heart & Club moth for a few years.

As soon as I stepped out the back door to the Box, I saw on the white sheet my first Pine Hawk-moth of the year. They are becoming virtually annual now which is very pleasing and this individual constituted my fourth Hawk-moth species of the year. There were 52 moths this morning of 25 species of which another ‘year-tick’, a Heart & Club, was also present. This is an irregular species of moth to my garden, so this individual was most welcome.


One of two Varied Coronet moths this morning.

However, it didn't take long for the local House Sparrows to discover my moths and sure enough, despite putting out a load of dried Mealworms, they did gorge on some of the hapless moths. I can hear the fledgling Sparrows in nearby gardens, so all I can say is Mother Nature at work.



The local House Sparrows enjoy the dried Mealworms.

The Moths present this morning included the following:

Macro moths:

  • Pine Hawk-moth x1
  • Straw Dot x1
  • Riband Wave x1
  • Shuttle-shaped Dart x1
  • White Ermine x2
  • Vine’s Rustic x3
  • Bright-line Brown-eye x1
  • Heart & Dart x7
  • Heart & Club x1
  • Garden Carpet x1
  • Dark Arches x1
  • L-album Wainscot x1
  • Pale Mottled Willow x2
  • Varied Coronet x2
  • Lime-speck Pug x4
  • Green Pug x1
  • Willow Beauty x8
  • Bloxworth Snout x1
  • Yellow-barred Brindle x1

Micro moths:

  • Ruddy Streak x2
  • Common Plume x3
  • Garden Mompha x1
  • Bronze Alder Moth x1
  • Apple Leaf Miner x3
  • Light Brown Apple Moth x1

Birding pals Emma & Matt Parkes took a trip to Hickling Broad Nature Reserve, Norfolk, and took these superb photos of the Swallowtail butterfly.





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