I've been trying to prioritise birds over moths this year, but I can't get away from the fact that I've caught more moths in my garden this year than ever before, and have added at least 28 new species to my garden list (almost all of them lifers).
Last night saw another new moth for the garden and six more new for the year, so I can't resist blogging about them.
The new one was a Figure of Eight, although it took me a while to figure it out. On seeing it on the fence in the torch light I assumed it was a Figure of Eighty, but fortunately on checking the books I realised it didn't look quite right and also that Figure of Eighty should not occur so late in the year. The penny finally dropped. Figure of Eight is quite an uncommon moth and has been in serious decline since the 1970s. However, I've heard that several moth-ers have caught the species this year, including Jason Waine in a different part of Redditch (it was his first too), so it looks like they're having a good year.
As for the rest, the most exciting were a moth called the Brick which was my first since I trapped two in my very first year of moth trapping (2018), followed closely by Green-brindled Crescent my first since 2019, Yellow-line Quaker the first since 2021, Feathered Thorn first since 2022, two White-points the second and third for the garden since it joined the list last year, and two Black Rustics.
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| Figure of Eight |
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| White-point |
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| Feathered Thorn (and White-point) |
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| Brick |
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| Green-brindled Crescent |
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| Yellow-line Quaker |
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| Black Rustic |
If you throw in two Merveille du Jours which just look great, and a late Yellow-tail its fair to say it was quite a night.
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