Wildlife

James Lowen

Here is one from Kent in 2019, for comparison.

Several species have been present in very good numbers, such as Buff-tip, Peppered Moth, White Satin and Nutmeg. Others have been present in exceptional numbers. Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing was one, with a peak of 66 being roughly quadruple the previous garden record. As alluded to in my previous blogpost, Elephant Hawk-moth was the standout. From 23 June to 7 July, I caught 391, with 11 nights recording higher than the previous peak of 20, and a mighty maximum of 75 individuals. Not a herd, but a stampede. On 27 June, inspired by Max Helical and Jack Morris, I started colour-marking them. Of 199 individuals caught since then, I marked 142 and retraced up to 32 (some may have been re-retraps or even re-re-retraps). Someone clever might be able to work out what that means, other than much pink.

The other rarity caught was Langmaid's Yellow Underwing. There seems to have been an influx in Norfolk, with multiples being caught on the coast and several venturing inland. I picked this individual out as being worthy of checking on jizz first (shoulders more rounded?), then checked the underside and found myself staring at a very black underside of the forewing. I fluffed getting killer photos of this feature (which was solidly and extensively black with no sign of orange teeth cutting into it at the edge), but did at least manage acceptable photos of the upper side of the hindwing. Whether these are sufficient for official acceptance is a different situation, of course. But for me it is a nailed on Langmaid's - exactly like I have seen several times in Kent.

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8 July 2025 Moth madness

The past fortnight has seen an impressively long period of warm nights. Many came with calm conditions, making for great mothing. Due to work and life, getting out and about has been impossible, but mothing in our Norwich garden has been exceptional for quantity, in particular. Several nights have resulted in upwards of 500 moths from 2-3 traps (and these numbers exclude Yponomeuta ermines, of which there have been hundreds each night), with the standout being 1,122 moths from just two traps on the night of 1 July, a site record. (I ran only two traps that night because I wasn't expecting such good conditions...) Diversity has been marvellous too, with several nights exceeding 100 species, and the maximum diversity being 156 species, a site record.

There has been some quality among the quantity - although arguably less than I would have expected. I was delighted to catch Norfolk's fourth record of Apple Marble Eudemis porphyrana (and the first for VC28), a species I had been looking for since Keith Kerr caught the county's first three years' back. The same night, James Symonds caught 60-odd at Thompson Common, proving the theory that this species has colonised on the QT. Sure enough, I had another a few nights later. A lovely tortrix.

The night of the Langmaid's also saw two further species new for the garden - a long-overdue L-album Wainscot and Scoparia basistrigialis (of which I caught three across two nights; others have been catching it locally too). Another new for garden would remain unidentified to species: one of the white-striped Aproaraema, cf larseniellus. Migrants included Pearly Underwing (2nd for garden), a couple each of Bordered Straw, Dark Sword-grass and European Corn-borer and double figures of Silver Y.Blackneck was only the second for the garden, as was a small Marbled Clover. A final goodie was the second Mere Wainscot for the garden. There seems to have been a lot of these around, with several people locally catching their first - and prompting discussion about identification features vs Concolorous and Small Dotted Buff (which we learned to eliminate on small rounded, non-furry head).