Two more Moth 'Lifers' in my garden.

Wednesday 8th July 2026.

        

Another warm day beckons and after a restless sleep overnight, at least I was pleased with the variety and numbers of Moths present in and around the Moth Box early this morning. I was out at 4.45am checking the Moth Box (mad, I know!), but it was too warm to simply lay there in bed and so it was up with a ‘Lark’ and after making a coffee, back to checking the Moths.

Pembroke Road, in Old Portsmouth, was also fairly warm, but I had the advantage of some shade this early in the morning and as I will not be working here this afternoon therefore I just checked the birds and insects during the hour I was there from 8am.

 

My Moth Box:

My first Dusky Sallow moth for this year. What a very smart Moth.

After yesterday’s excitement with the very rare Starry Pearl moth I found in my garden, I was looking forward to finding some more possible rarities. Not quite as rare, but still a good moth species for the garden were the FOUR Small Mottled Willows. This was a big rarity over the years I have been ‘Moth-ing’, but this year has been exceptional for this species.

 

Two 'Lifers' graced my Moth Box this morning with (above) Fleabane Moth and (below) the Southern Apple Moth upon the egg trays.

Above, the very small micro Hop Beauty moth.

A stunning Dusky Sallow was a very nice Moth to find perched near my Moth Box and though it flew off briefly, I found it again perched on one of the outside egg trays. Another couple of Moths that were new for the year and ‘Lifers’ too, were the FLEABANE MOTH (Digitivalva pullicariae) and the SOUTHERN APPLE MOTH (Recurvaria nanella), which is a nationally rare moth. One of our smallest Moths in the UK, the quite gorgeous micro moth Hop Beauty (Cosmopterix zieglerella) was also present at the top of the Moth Box and though it closely resembles other Cosmopterix species, it’s the closest I could get to the species ‘zieglerella’.

One of three Elephant Hawk-moths today.

A cracking total of 132 moths of 38 species were present this morning and I was blessed with THREE Elephant Hawk-moths today as well as a Least Carpet and the micro moths, Garden Straw (Agapeta hamana), Mint Moth (Pyrausta aurata) and a Hampshire Dowd (Blastobasis phycidella).

 

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Elephant Hawk-moth x3	Mother of Pearl x2
Lime-speck Pug x1	Garden Straw x1
Least Carpet x1	Common Masoner x5
Small Mottled Willow x4	Common Plume x5
Riband Wave x4	Apple Leaf Miner x32
Lackey x1	Rufous Pearl x4
L-album Wainscot x2	Rusty-dot Pearl x3
Common Emerald x1	Golden-brown Tubic x3
Double-striped Pug x2	Blushed Knot-horn x4
Dusky Sallow * x1	Garden Grey x3
Bright-line Brown-eye x4	Light Brown Apple Moth x11
Dark Arches x1	Bud Moth x3
Common Footman x1	Fleabane Moth * x1
	Mint Moth x2
	Hop Beauty * x1
	Rosy Tabby x1
	Garden Grass-veneer x10
	Bird-cherry Ermine x1
	Hampshire Dowd x1
	Southern Apple Moth * x1
	Large Pale Masoner x6
	Ruddy Streak x1

 

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:

A productive morning and thankfully, in the shade within Pembroke Road during my first and only shift here this morning. The usual three species of Gull were seen well today with a couple of Great Black-backed Gulls, several Black-headed Gulls (including one on Governor’s Green) and many Herring Gulls.

Both Great Tit and Blue Tit were present, and the adult Wren was flying back and forth to its nest site close to where I stand. I could even hear the chicks calling within its nest when the adult arrived with food. Swifts sailed over the clear blue sky with at least 6 birds seen overhead.

The House Sparrows were calling frequently from the hedge by the Bowling Green and on the insect front, one Red Admiral and a Large White butterfly were seen flying by the road. The many Buff-tailed Bumblebee's present due to the flowering Hibiscus Bushes, were also taking a liking to my reflective jacket I was wearing and only narrowly avoiding missing my head a few times!