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31 May 2026 Bordertown

The last week or two have made for very frustrating garden mothing. If I lived in Cornwall, I would probably have been inundated with Striped Hawk-moths, Eastern Bordered Straws and perhaps even rarer stuff. It has been one of the most manic periods for Saharan migrants ever known in Britain. In a different life, I would have spent a few nights down there trapping. In reality, I make do with what I can get in Norwich - and get used to my eyes burning green. Last night, I noticed that Steve Nash had totted up records this month of Eastern Bordered Straw. There had been 39 in Britain prior to this month, 19 of which were in a single, singularly fulsome year. In the past week alone there have been at least 87 caught by last night. Noting that two had reached Norfolk (the first since 1958), I messaged our county moths WhatsApp group, saying that this gave 'inspiration to keep trapping - and get Norfolk another Eastern Bordered Straw.

Little did I think that my garden would be the recipient. It felt rather cool last night, so I wasn't overly optimistic. But in the first of my three traps, a little batter-powered Skinner actinic, my heart skipped multiple beats as I saw an intricately patterned moth tucked into one of the egg trays. OMG! To document the record, I snapped it with my mobile phone.

You can just about see the legs of another moth (a Heart & Dart) deeper into the compartment, behind the Eastern Bordered Straw. This made me fluff potting the EBS not once but twice, causing no end of panic as I chased the vagrant around with a pot. Proper comedy. And very nearly tragicomedy.

Wildlife

I suspect that none of the immigrant moths actually arrived in the UK this evening, but instead had dispersed north and east from their original arrival point. Which rather whets the appetite for trapping again tonight...

By the end of the third trap, I had totted up 420-odd moths of 106 species. The numbers were immense for May - ut the quality was even better. A second new moth for me (as well as the 10km square and the garden) was Evergestis extimalis (Marbled Yellow Pearl). A very smart moth that, in Norfolk, is mainly associated with the Brecks: I am not sure quite how I have never seen this before, but it appears I haven't. Then there was the garden's second Cypress Carpet and (though I somehow missed it first time round) the garden's second Small Mottled Willow. Other migrants included a Silver Y (nothing compared to upwards of a thousand trapped on Scott Head island last night) and ten Diamond-backs. To round off an amazing night's trapping, a Phyllocnistis xenia (Kent Maze-miner).