Port de Sóller, Mallorca 2026 – The phone snaps

Posted on: 26 September 2026 | 6:49 am

Clouded Yellow breeders – Butterfly Briefs

I got a tipoff about Clouded Yellow (Colias croceus) on a lucerne/alfalfa and clover field in Aldreth a couple of days ago. Many dozens of them, apparently. I had a look a couple of days ago, but it was cloudy and windy and we only saw maybe a couple of dozen. A day later with … Continue reading "Clouded Yellow breeders – Butterfly Briefs"

Posted on: 25 September 2026 | 6:59 am

Port de Sóller, Mallorca

A week in September in Port de Sóller, Mallorca (15th-21st), for sun, sea, mountain-trail hiking, and more. Goat-haunted paths with Blue Rock Thrush, Firecrest and Mediterranean Spotted Flycatcher, Booted Eagle, Kestrel, Red Kite, Raven, Cinereous Vulture, Audouin’s Gull and Herring, Yellow-legged Gull, Little Egret. Butterflies and moths were less numerous, but Lang’s Short-tailed Blue was … Continue reading "Port de Sóller, Mallorca"

Posted on: 24 September 2026 | 8:35 am

Welcoming Clif back again – Moth of the Moment

Clif is so big they won’t fit in the frame… This is the enormous Clifden Nonpareil moth, Catocala fraxini, wingspan is about 75-95mm, this one was probably 85-90mm. The species was extinct in the UK by the middle of the 20th Century, having been resident in Kent and Norfolk until then. But, it has made … Continue reading "Welcoming Clif back again – Moth of the Moment"

Posted on: 14 September 2026 | 4:36 am

The autumnal changing of the mothing guard

At this time of year, the moth trap starts to change character. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, we’ve had the local rise and fall of the Large Yellow Underwings. There has been an increase in frequency of one or two of the orangey-yellow-brown moths, such as the Frosted Orange and the Centre-barred … Continue reading "The autumnal changing of the mothing guard"

Posted on: 10 September 2026 | 12:12 pm

Look at the stars, see how they shine…? Well…

There is something comforting/disconcerting [del. as applic.] about looking up at the stars and planets in the night sky, the wonder of the crescent moon, the Milky Way, the firmament…the vastness of all that eternity out there. And, as I’ve mentioned before, there’s a great Peter Cook quote where he says the view when he … Continue reading "Look at the stars, see how they shine…? Well…"

Posted on: 10 September 2026 | 3:09 am

Large Yellow Underwing – Moth of the Moment

One of the most striking things in the annual garden moth-trap data is the rises and falls, and then the big surge, of the Large Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba. For much of the year, its numbers are surprisingly modest. Most trapping sessions produce somewhere between zero and ten moths, and early in the year it … Continue reading "Large Yellow Underwing – Moth of the Moment"

Posted on: 9 September 2026 | 4:05 am

The mothing law of diminishing returns

There comes a point in any long-running biological recording project when “new” becomes a rather more interesting word. This year is my 9th year of mothing, I started on 24th July 2018. Most years I count around 8000-9000 specimens of 300-370 species. This year has been a recordbreaker with almost 15,000 moths recorded in the … Continue reading "The mothing law of diminishing returns"

Posted on: 8 September 2026 | 9:20 am

Golden Twin-spot – Moth of the Moment

There was a shiny moth sitting on the sheet behind the trap last night when we returned from our evening’s entertainment. I didn’t immediately recognise the species, so potted it for a closer look. Golden Twin-spot, Chrysodeixis chalcites. It didn’t seem to be mentioned on the latest updates on our county mothing site nor in … Continue reading "Golden Twin-spot – Moth of the Moment"

Posted on: 5 September 2026 | 8:35 am

A challenge to moth-ers everywhere: Could AI show us what we’re missing?

ObsIdentify and similar nature ID apps can be frustratingly flaky. Anyone who has used them regularly will have seen some spectacularly confident wrong answers. I had a warbler in a tree that one app thought was a harbour seal, and another obvious beetle that it flagged as some kind of American rodent! Worse, it can … Continue reading "A challenge to moth-ers everywhere: Could AI show us what we’re missing?"

Posted on: 3 September 2026 | 10:51 am