More Moths and a trip to Heddon Valley.

Wednesday 27th August 2025.

My first Purple Thorn moth of the year.

It was not the perfect start I wanted for this morning as I gambled on when the rain was due in early in the morning. As the Moth Box had no shelter from the incoming rain that was due around 7am, I awoke at stupid o’clock just in case the rain came in early. In fact, it was when I was tidying the Box away that the rain started coming down. So, despite losing a lot of sleep, after I had finished with the Moth Box and counted everything up, I had another cup of coffee and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

My Moth Box:

My first Parsnip Moth of the year.

I picked up two more ‘year-ticks’ this morning for my efforts, which included a superb Purple Thorn (my 6th species of Thorn for this year) and the micro moth, the Parsnip Moth (Depressaria radiella). That was the first Purple Thorn moth I have seen for many a year and I don't often see Parsnip Moths either.

Above, a Chinese Character and below, the Twenty-plume Moth.

Other notable species included my second Chinese Character of the year and probably my 3rd Twenty-plume Moth of the year too. Yes, numbers were down a lot from yesterday with just 33 moths of 17 species recorded.

Yellow Shell.

The Moths recorded this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Chinese Character x1	Common Grass-moth x5
Double-striped Pug x1	Light Brown Apple Moth x2
Snout x2	Twenty-plume Moth x1
Brimstone Moth x5	Parsnip Moth x1*
Yellow Shell x1
Common Rustic x1
Setaceous Hebrew Character x4
Large Yellow Underwing x1
Light Emerald x2
Flame Shoulder x3
Yellow-barred Brindle x1
Purple Thorn x1*
Early Thorn x1

My Moth Box also attracted another species of Bush-cricket this morning; an Oak Bush-cricket, which was happy to sit in one of the egg trays until I helped it on its way back to the garden. I couldn’t hang around long once the rain started to fall, even though it was light at first, but it got heavier when I was asleep.

The Oak Bush-cricket on one of the egg trays.

Heddon Valley, near Martinhoe:

The Hunters Inn, which was down in the Heddon Valley. A lovely pub with a warm welcome and excellent food.

We were racking our brains this morning on where to go and decided to head to Exmoor to view the scenery, however , the weather looked a bit indifferent with a lot of showers and a few sunny spells. On our way there (the damn Sat Nav keeps taking us down the tiny country lanes!!!), we stopped off at the Old Station House Inn for a coffee and then picked up the road again on the A39 into Exmoor. We saw the sign for the village of Parracombe and though we drove through it down the very narrow lanes, there was hardly anything there to really look at and so we headed to Haddon Valley instead.

I saw this interesting picture hanging up within the Old Station House Inn of the birds and wildlife in Exmoor.

However, we took probably the scariest tiny road leading to the area and I really had to have my wits about me to negotiate the tiny road. How anyone can live down here and be happy with driving down that road day in day out is beyond me; but on the plus side, it is probably very peaceful and I expect the wildlife here is amazing.

Above, a Large White butterfly nectaring on one of the garden plants and below, looking back up the valley. The slopes were heavily wooded, though I believe there were plenty of footpaths there for those who wanted to walk through the woods.

Above, a Wood Pigeon high up in one of the few Conifers and below, the Hunters Inn snuggled in amongst the trees and vegetation.

We eventually got to the large Car Park at the bottom of the valley and then made our way to the Hunters Inn for a bite to eat and a refreshing pint! Happy days! Though I clobbered a Wasp for jumping into my dinner, the sun was now out and though a tad breezy, it certainly was a beautiful place that was surrounded by steep valley slopes laden with most Oak trees. I expect the likes of Redstarts and Pied Flycatchers are abundant here? I was sure I heard a Willow Tit calling near the Cafe area nearby, but I didn't catch any sighting of the bird. In fact, I did also hear a Treecreeper, Nuthatch and a Common Buzzard, but saw none of them! Yep, a gorgeous place, but there were plenty more country roads to negotiate back to our Cottage.

Above, with Wales in the background when I took this photo, we watched this Common Buzzard sail over the countryside below and then further west along the coastline from a viewpoint overlooking the area.

From the same viewpoint where we pulled over into a small Car Park, we could see Crock Point below.

As we were coming out of Barnstaple and making our way over the River Taw along the A361, I caught sight of a large interesting raptor to my right and sure enough, it was a superb Osprey soaring high over the River. This species is now making its way further south to feed up before that long trip home to Africa and to see one today was the icing on the cake for a lovely day out.