Another nice selection of Moths.

 Friday 7^th August 2026.

My first Yellow-barred Brindle for some time.

Sunny but cool this morning in my Southsea garden as I went about checking my Moth Box and what at first looked very quiet for Moths, it still produced a good total of 90 moths of 29 species. Yet again, there was nothing new for the year, but there was good variety present today and a sprinkling of migrant moths too.

The subject of Cats arose again on Facebook where someone had a night camera put up in his garden. A Cat chased a juvenile Robin around the garden that had been roosting in a bush and then killed it, despite wearing a bell around the Cat’s neck. Cats are responsible for killing millions of birds every year in our gardens and countryside and unlike Australia where they ban Cats being outside at night, the debate will always go on. I most certainly don’t agree in harming Cats in anyway, but they are a serious problem to our nature and the declining bird numbers in the UK, especially in our gardens.

 

My Moth Box:

One of three Garden Tiger moths today.

Though there were some nice moths present this morning, the fresh, Yellow-barred Brindle, my first for many weeks, was seen perched on my fence panel near the Moth Box. Up to three Garden Tigers were logged and carefully placed in the nearby vegetation and another lovely moth, the Small Ranunculus, was present again with two recorded.

Two very different looking Blair's Mocha moths.

Migrant moths this morning included a Small Mottled Willow, Turnip Moth, Langmaid’s Yellow Underwing and the micro moths Rusty Acorn Piercer and two Rusty-dot Pearls.

This Langmaid's Yellow Underwing gave up its tell-tale underwing.

Two completely different Blair’s Mocha moths were present, and you can see by the photos how they can vary in colour. Once all the moths have been recorded, I then carefully empty the Box with the help of one of my pots and carefully place all the moth back into the garden. Not all moths survive the night and there are quite a few Spiders present including one of the UK’s biggest, a Green-fanged Tube-web spider that was feeding on one of my moths! had one of my moths. The following moths were present this morning:

 

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Pale Mottled Willow x7	Blushed Knot-horn x1
Turnip Moth x1	Garden Pebble x2
Double-striped Pug x5	Apple Leaf Miner x26
Yellow-barred Brindle x1	Common Plume x1
Golden Twin-spot x1	Hawthorn Moth x5
Garden Carpet x1	Rusty Acorn Piercer x1
Common Rustic x3	Rusty-dot Pearl x2
L-album Wainscot x3	Coleophora sp. X2
Small Dusty Wave x1	Light Brown Apple Moth x4
Small Mottled Willow x1	Box Tree Moth x3
Shuttle-shaped Dart x3	Hampshire Dowd x1
Garden Tiger x3
Small Ranunculus x2
Bright-line Brown-eye x2
Langmaid’s Yellow Underwing x1
Blair’s Mocha x2
Vine’s Rustic x1

 

Another Willow Warbler was calling quietly in the gardens behind mine this morning and a calling Greenfinch flew over. However, it is sad to see a sky with no Swifts screaming overhead and I am missing them already. On the positive side, the migrant birds will be coming over the houses soon with Yellow Wagtails and Tree Pipits on their way soon.

One of two Painted Ladies on Eastney seafront. 

Late morning, I had the 'heads up' that a possible Queen of Spain Fritillary had been found near the old Eastney Swimming Pool at Eastney and seen feeding on Valerian by the main road. So before I headed off to work, I thought I would spend 20 minutes or so looking for it, as it would be a 'Lifer' for me. Sadly, despite a lengthy search, there was no sign of the butterfly, but there were two Painted Lady butterflies along with a couple of Small White's. Could the chap who saw the Fritillary confuse the butterfly for the Painted Lady?

The Hummingbird Hawk-moth at the back of my garden.

Late afternoon, in my garden, I was checking out the usual butterflies, when I saw a Hummingbird Hawk-moth nectaring on our 'Hot Lips' plants at the back of the garden and then it took a fancy to our Lavender plants; all the time getting closer and closer. Out of all the photos I took, only one really came out decent. I did take some nice film footage of the Moth, but my wife said something unrepeatable while I was filming, lol! 

One of the two Small White butterflies enjoying the Lavender.