Wildlife

James Lowen

Thanks to the kind and lovely owner of a fabulous farmhouse Air BnB in Tresidder, between St Buryan and Porthgwarra, I ran for two nights at my digs. Even better, the owner was a botanist who was keen to understand what moths her garden plants had attracted. So we enjoy two moth mornings, with me failing to remember larval foodplants but being delighted with the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ emanating from my companion. The first night was packed full of migrants – two Cosmopolitan were the star, with supporting acts including a brace of Striped Hawks. On the wind, the second night blew from the north (inland), producing a different suite of species, with migrants less prominent (but there was still a Striped Hawk).

But the best of the dragons were at Windmill Farm. I was treated to a private tour with Dougy, the volunteer warden (to whom huge thanks), and we easily came across a trio of rare breeders: mating Lesser Emperors and Southern Migrant Hawkers (plus an additional male of each) and several male Red-veined Darters.

The best was saved for the final night, however, I elected not to run traps as I had to leave pre-dawn and needed to pack up the car without disturbing the owner. So I simply left out a pheromone trap containing ORI, the lure for Slender Burnished Brass - the moth I really wanted to see this trip, above all others. Thus far the trap had attracted only Silver Ys, but peering inside with my headtorch I was stunned to see a long sliver of metallic green on the moth deepest in. Slender Burnished Brass, indeed! My assumption is that this species is no longer exclusively an immigrant but now breeds locally in Cornwall, with records in the previous fortnight was far east as The Lizard.

For me, this was manna from heaven. Dougy was keen, however, that we tracked down the site’s first Ruddy Darter, which another dragonflyer had found earlier. Our luck was in and we got good views – prompting a huge smile to cross Dougy’s face. For an east-of-Englander Ruddy Darter is standard fare (I photographed one only yesterday while walking to a survey site in the Broads), but in Cornwall, the species is bonkers rare. I think it was a tick for Dougy. All of which is a useful reminder that we live in a country with diverse natural history, and the more time we spend exploring here, there and everywhere, the more enjoyable our wildlife-ing should be.

BLOG

26 August 2026 Cornwall

I know that I am way behind with blogs. I will endeavour to catch up, as there’s much to talk about – including around 30 new moth species for the garden, including some goodies, and a trip to Crete. For now, however, I spent a few days in Cornwall in early August – earning brownie points by driving my daughter down for a thing and staying around just in case I was needed... The drive also enabled me to divert via the Gloucestershire Long-tailed Shrike, which - it is fair to say - showed rather better than the Fife bird did (even if that one was more exciting)! If I had had my big lens, and if I had not broken my 1dXII at the Western Reef Heron, I would have done it some serious damage.

Moths are not the only lepidopterans, of course. One of the stunning features of walking the coast was the abundance of Clouded Yellows, Painted Ladies, Red Admirals and Small Whites. It is certainly a ‘Clouded Yellow year’ and a ‘Painted Lady year’, but nevertheless seeing scores of the former, including a mating pair, and a helice individual at Marazion, was a true pleasure.

This night also produced other good stuff such as the first Striped Hawk-moth I had trapped in the UK (I found one in the field a few years ago, twitched one of Matthew Deans’ in 2019, and have caught plenty abroad) – a huge individual this one – plus stuff an East Anglian moth-er sees rarely, such as Grass Eggar, Mullein Wave, Pyla fusca and (below the slideshow) Northern Rustic.

Lepidopterans are not the only insects, of course. Around Porthgwarra I bumped into my first Hornet Robberflies. Proper beasts and quite a few of them too.

My main aims were to find a Wilson’s Storm-petrel and see some quality moths. Both were achieved (Wilson’s seen off Pendeen and Lizard Point, along with a couple of score Cory’s) and I jammed into an Ortolan at Porthgwarra, which was only the second I have found. Mothing was fun. I joined some of the Lizard moth-ers (Dougy, Nick, Paul) for an evening that produced three local specialities that were new for me – Square-spotted Dart, Devonshire Wainscot and Agonopterix bipunctuosa.

And then there are Odonata, As an east-of-Englander, I rarely see Gold-ringed Dragonfly, so watching several at close range was pleasing.

I love the way that Rush Veneers can look behind them at the approaching person, camera, predator...