Hummingbird Hawk-moth by the Moth Box.

Friday 8th August 2025.

Hummingbird Hawk-moth & Jersey Tiger moths. This was my second Hummingbird Hawk-moth of the year upon my Moth Box.

It was much milder than usual this morning with temperatures hovering around 16 degrees centigrade and it was overcast again, but good enough to hang the towels out after I washed them! Setting the alarm for 5.30am paid off as there were plenty of Moths present this morning to go for, but no new Moths to add to my year list. Hurrumph! 

Still nothing of note flying over regarding visible migration, but the noisy Herring Gulls made sure there was plenty to listen to while I was checking the Moth Box.

My Moth Box:

One of three Jasmine Moths today.

Another large number of Moths this morning with a good count of 111 moths of 37 species. Without doubt, the best moth present was a Hummingbird Hawk-moth that was perched on the brick (along with a Jersey Tiger) that holds down my rainguard. I carefully placed the brick on the ground, but then the Hawk-moth flew off and commenced feeding almost immediately on my Petunia’s close by. That certainly made getting up at this time of the morning worth the effort ten times over!

Above, my second Hoary Tortrix (Eucosma cana) of the year and below, a White-point moth.

Up to 6 Garden Tigers and 2 Jersey Tigers were present this morning and 3 Jasmine Moths was certainly a good number for this migrant moth. My second Hoary Tortrix micro moth of the year was in one of the egg trays within the Box and other migrant moths included a Turnip Moth and up to three Langmaid’s Yellow Underwings. 17 Ruddy Streaks and 11 Common Plume’s were the most numerous moth species this morning.

The Hummingbird Hawk-moth began nectaring on my Petunia's almost immediately after taking off.

The Moths recorded this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTH	MICRO MOTH
Hummingbird Hawk-moth x1	Jasmine Moth x3
Garden Tiger x6	Hoary Tortrix x1
Jersey Tiger x2	Dark Moss-moth x2
Grey / Dark Dagger x1	Garden Pebble x2
Turnip Moth x 1	Ruddy Streak x17
Common Rustic x3	Grey Knot-horn x1
Bright-line Brown-eye x1	Common Masoner x5
Shuttle-shaped Dart x7	Bramble Shoot Moth x2
Cabbage Moth x2	Rusty-dot Pearl x3
Langmaid’s Yellow Underwing x3	Light Brown Apple Moth x9
Buff Ermine x1	White-shouldered House Moth x4
Vine’s Rustic x3	Common Plume x11
White-point x1	Straw Grass-moth x1
Pale Mottled Willow x2	Bud Moth x1
Small Dusty Wave x2	Bee Moth x1
Willow Beauty x1
Double-striped Pug x3
Lime-speck Pug x1
Lychnis x1
Brimstone Moth x3
Marbled Beauty x3

Matt & Emma’s Moth Box:

Iron Prominent.

Over in Fareham, Emma sent me photos last night of two very nice Moths: a Svenssons Copper Underwing and an Iron Prominent (see photos) by their Moth Box. This morning, new moths for the year for these guys included a Crescent Groundling, Twin-barred Knot-horn and Pale Mottled Willow. They also had a number of Tree-lichen Beauties and a Pine Hawk-moth.

Svensson's Copper Underwing.

I found this Dusky Thorn while tidying the garden up this afternoon. Butterflies were on the wing in my garden this afternoon also that included three Large White's, two Holly Blue's and a Comma.