Yet another 'micro Moth 'Lifer'.

Tuesday 19th August 2025.

A beautiful start to the morning.

There was a gorgeous sunrise this morning as the sky glowed orange through and above the trees over Southsea. An north-easterly was blowing over the garden and a bit breezy at times, but pleasant enough to check my Moth Box and any possibly good moths that might be present this morning. Thankfully, though the white sheet looked near empty, there were actually a good haul of Moths today. Though there were no Willow Warblers or Chiffchaffs heard or seen in the back garden, a calling Yellow Wagtail flew high over heading south-west. My first of the Autumn here over the garden.

My Moth Box:

This NORWAY MAPLE LEAFMINER was added to my Moth Life List.

The fine run of ‘Lifer’ moths continued this morning when actually I was putting all my trays back in the Moth Box. I discovered a very tiny moth sitting on one of the egg trays and on closer inspection, I thought that I had not seen one of these before. A quick check on Obsidentify and it came back as a NORWAY MAPLE LEAFMINER (Phyllonorycter joannisi)! They are apparently widespread around Southern England, but a major ‘first’ for my garden and my Moth Life List. 

Two more moths were added to my year total with (above) a Flounced Rustic and below, a Common Grass-veneer.

Two more Moths were new for the year that included the macro moth, Flounced Rustic, which is annual to my garden and also the micro moth, Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella), which is also annual to my garden and in some numbers over the years. A good count of 95 moths of 36 species were recorded and immigrant moths this morning included 3 Langmaid’s Yellow Underwings, 2 White-point, 4 Golden Twin-spot, Silver Y, 2 Jasmine Moth and 9 Rusty-dot Pearl.

The Moths recorded this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Flounced Rustic x1 *	NORWAY MAPLE LEAFMINER x1
Double-striped Pug x8	Box Tree Moth x5
Yellow-barred Brindle x4	Ruddy Streak x3
Small Dusty Wave x1	Black-banded Masoner x1
Vine’s Rustic x5	Rusty-dot Pearl x9
Langmaid’s Yellow Underwing x3	White-shouldered House Moth x1
Cabbage Moth x1	Dark Moss-moth x3
Shuttle-shaped Dart x4	Common Grass-veneer x1 *
Marbled Beauty x3	Light Brown Apple Moth x1
Pale Mottled Willow x10	Barred Marble x1
White-point x2	Jasmine Moth x2
Setaceous Hebrew Character x2	Common Plume x1
L-album Wainscot x4	Beautiful Plume x1
Bright-line Brown-eye x3	Garden Pebble x1
Golden Twin-spot x4	Rush Veneer x1
Silver Y x1	Bud Moth x1
Light Emerald x1
Garden Tiger x3
Heart & Dart x1
Garden Carpet x1

There were a few insects in and around the Moth Box this morning that included a Cinnemon Sedge Caddis Fly and a few Lacewings. Of course, there are always plenty of Spiders around and a few Green-fanged Tubeweb Spiders had their legs out of the hiding holes!

In Hampshire today:

There were some notable sightings in Hampshire of which if I wasn't too busy doing housework, I could have gone down Farlington Marshes on my day off and ‘year-ticked’ the two Ruff that were on the Lake this morning. Hurrumph!! Maybe afterwards, a trip over to the Northney Paddocks where at least FIVE Pied Flycatchers were seen along with 5 Spotted Flycatchers, 2 Redstarts and a Whinchat. Or maybe over to Workman’s Lane, Hook-with-Warsash where a Wryneck was seen ‘anting’. That's the third bird in as many days that has been seen in Hampshire, which begs the question, how many more are out there? A Glossy Ibis was still there as well.

An Osprey over Fishlake Meadows today. Photo by Andy Tew.

Over at Pennington Marshes, the pools over there are drying out fast, but two Little Stints were present today to make the most of the disappearing water. Three Ospreys were seen in Portsmouth Harbour and another over Titchfield Haven and one at Fishlake Meadows.

Another photo of the Fishlake Osprey.

This afternoon, I quickly checked my Moth Box after a brief shower and flushed a few Moths from this morning. However, I found a few more I missed this morning that included a Garden Pebble, Bud Moth and the immigrant moth, Rush Veneer.