2025 in Moth

Unless there are any mild, calm nights forecast between now and 2026, my little trap is done for the year. So it's time for the 2025 Moth Review...

I am so glad I finally bit the bullet and started moth-trapping in 2022. It has provided a pleasing counterpoint to the increasingly depressing realities that 50+ years as a birdwatcher have made me all too aware of. I am sure the relentless birdy declines and losses that my generation has witnessed take an inevitable toll on the enthusiasm of many like me. The World of Moth is novel enough and diverse enough to rekindle it. I am well aware that mothing is just a glittery distraction, but I don't care. Long may it be so.

I shall start with the biggie. The first moth ever to have given me a dose of the shakes...

June 26th - Druid in a pot.

My trap is just a 40W actinic, and numerically its catches usually small. This moth was a nice reminder that you don't need anything special. I think there are around 20 British records. So, a pukka rarity.

Druid on a brick.

While I'm on rare migrants, here is the rarest to have graced the trap since its move to Axminster in late September...

November 14th - Banded Sable. Just 17 Devon records up to end of 2024.

The rest of this post is a mainly random collection of composite photos depicting my favourite moths of the year. Some are scarce, some common. All provided entertainment or interest or pleasure, or all three. I say 'mainly random', but the first three sets have a theme...

 

Moths in the Field

Enjoying moths in their natural habitat, as opposed to when they are attracted to light, is something I would like to do a bit more of in 2026.

An incredible encounter with a migrant Striped Hawk-moth at Cogden on May 30th.

Clockwise from top left: Pea Moth, Blackneck, Yellow Belle and Yellow Shell; all in the species-rich meadows of Cogden

Clockwise from top left: Water-dropwort Brown, Six-spot Burnet, Small Eggar, Rosy Knothorn; all at Cogden again.

All bar three of the above have never come to my garden light trap, nor are they likely to. Seeking moths in the field is a lot of fun.

 

Moths in the Garden

Clockwise from top left: Herald, Oak Beauty, Coxcomb Prominent, Mullein; none scarce, but the last two were garden firsts.

Clockwise from top left: Seraphim, Puss Moth, Alder Moth, Puss Moth again; Seraphim was new for the garden.

Clockwise from top left: Chocolate Tip, Mallow Seed Moth, Peach Blossom x2; the first two were new for the garden. Chocolate Tip was a diminutive delight, and Mallow Seed Moth (the first of two) seemingly very scarce in West Dorset.

Clockwise from top left: Maple Snout, Woundwort Pearl, Hemp Agrimony Plume, Gold-barred Marble; none common in the Bridport area.

Clockwise from top left: Bordered Straw, Scarce Light Plume, Olive Tree Pearl, Small Marbled; all migrants of varying scarcity. 2025 was an especially good year for Small Marbled, with me and many others getting their first garden records this summer; we ended up with four.

A big and spectacular bunch. Clockwise from top left: Privet Hawk-moth, Lobster Moth, Tissue, Lappet. The Lappet was an absolute beast, and probably the most impressive moth of the year. The Tissue was a garden second, following one in 2023; they appear to be the first Dorset records since 2015!

Clockwise from top left: Brown-veined Wainscot, Bulrush Wainscot, Merveille du Jour, Obscure Mompha. The wainscots were new for the Bridport garden, while Obscure Mompha was new for Devon!

Clockwise from top left: Shaded Pug, Tawny Shears, Royal Mantle, Twin-spotted Wainscot. Royal Mantle appears to be pretty rare in Dorset; this was my second, trapped in our son's Lyme Regis garden.

So that's it. 2025 saw the Bridport garden list push past 600, but here we are in Axminster now, in East Devon, starting from scratch again. When we moved in I was not optimistic about the mothy prospects. Our garden is tiny, with virtually no plants in it yet, and there are bright street lights on all night. Yet already we have had Banded Sable and a bunch of other very nice moths. 2026 beckons. Let the glittery distraction continue...

31

I cannot think of a good reason why the moth trap should be out tonight, but it is. I shall curtail this folly before bed because heavy rain is forecast. An empty trap is bad enough - and there have been a few lately - but a wet, empty trap is a pain. And anyway, despite extremely slim pickings recent catches have already exceeded expectations - three new species for the Axminster garden, including a lifer for me. I think the last time I wrote about numbers we were on 28 here. I pressed on in the hope of a Winter Moth. That duly happened when I plucked one off the trap vanes on December 6th. So, 29. A nice, round 30 would be good to finish the year on, and I wondered if Mottled Umber might be a possibility. I only ever caught a couple in Bridport, but thought it worth a try nonetheless. And then last night I caught two. Result. However, I didn't discover them until this morning, and they had already been beaten to number 30 by a lifer...

I found this beneath a window ledge late last night, but had no idea what it was.

This moth is clearly very worn, with just a few sketchy remnants of what were no doubt nice markings once. I was completely stumped. When that happens I often try ObsIdentify first. Considering the really bad phone shots I was asking it to deal with I wasn't expecting much, but hoped maybe it would point me in the right direction...

Two really bad images of my mystery moth. Surely too reflective and shiny to be of any use?

As you can imagine, I was a bit surprised by this confidence!

Obviously my next step was to get books off the shelf and check out The Brick. Not an especially common moth in Devon (just four records last year, though double figure totals normally) and not one I'd caught in Bridport. Seems to be a variable species, but I could see just enough on my knackered specimen to convince me that ObsID was correct. And thank goodness for that, because if I had been limited to books alone I am not sure I'd have nailed it. Eventually I came across an online photo that suggested what my moth would have looked like fully dressed...

Photo on the right by Tom Morris, and lifted from the Dorset Moths website.

So that was fun. And unexpected.

At least I knew what Mottled Umbers looked like, and they are rather lovely...

Mottled Umber 1

Mottled Umber 2

In the past I have written at some length about ObsIdentify and its use. Three years on, my view is pretty much the same. I see it as a handy tool to have at hand when I am stumped - or just feeling lazy - but I never trust it. Those 100% confidence IDs have occasionally been 100% wrong. And sometimes it struggles for no obvious reason. Many times though - like this time - it has solved what I thought was a tricky ID with surprising ease and accuracy.

So there we are: 31. 

Gulls & Terns

A midday visit to the Axe Estuary today produced one of the smartest Caspian Gulls I've seen for a while. Initially almost completely hidden by other gulls, a partial flush brought it right to the front. According to Google Maps, the following snaps were taken at some 146m range...

White head klaxon!

Maybe not the adjective everyone might choose to describe this bird, but that really is a lovely Casp. Large, leggy, long-billed. Lovely. It wouldn't open its wings for me, but that didn't stop me taking lots of photos, and those above provide a selection of the search images that live constantly in my head. I would be the first to admit that gulls are often subtle, but a bird like this one simply jumps out of the crowd for me these days. All I could see at first was its head waving about in the middle of the flock as it preened. But that was enough.

This was my 12th Axe Casp since moving back to East Devon a couple of months ago, following numbers 10 and 11 on Monday, December 1st...

These two blurry images are the best I managed of Casp number 10 on that Monday morning. Half the flock flushed the moment I got my camera out. It's the first-winter bird in the middle of each shot, with the black tail-band.

By the afternoon it was wet and windy, and Axe Casp number 11 was photographed in appalling light through a veil of rain...

Another first-winter bird.

Bonus Kittiwake on the river. Quite a lot rarer on the Axe than Caspian Gulls these days.

So...terns...

Monday, December 1st was notable not just for its provision of another two Axe Estuary Caspian Gulls. Roughly 90 minutes after I photographed that Kittiwake, a bright-billed tern sp. flew down the valley with a mass of pre-roost gulls, slipping through the fingers of its sole observer who was positioned across the river from the spot I had vacated a little earlier [slightly more details on Steve's blog here]. Two days later a Lesser Crested Tern was discovered on the Exe Estuary, around 18 miles to the west. Apparently the first in Britain for a couple of decades, this Lesser Crested Tern has stuck around and become a bird that it would be rude not to pop in and catch up with, or something like that.

I guess I am rude.

The idea of travelling to Dawlish or Cockwood or Turf Lock to see this bird appeals about as much as a poke in the eye. If it was on the Axe...well, I would be a lot more polite. But don't ask me why, because I can't really articulate it beyond saying that at least it would 'mean something', whatever that means.

It was not always so...

August 1983. The date is lost in the mists of time, but I know it was a weekday. At some unhealthy pre-dawn hour I am trudging through shingle with many other hopefuls, aiming for Blakeney Point. There is a lot of heavy breathing and no talk. We arrive. There, among a cluster of Sandwich Terns, is an orange-billed tern. Memory tells me it was supposed to be a Royal Tern. It was nice. We trudged back, climbed into cars and returned to real life.

A few days later it was the weekend. I went again, this time with Sandra and our eight-month-old son, Rob. I carried our offspring in a primitive baby-carrier back-pack thing. It had webbing straps which morphed into piano wire after about two miles of shingle. It was agony. The bird wasn't seen all day. Annoyingly it was by now a Lesser Crested Tern. Crossing out 'Royal Tern' had spoiled my notebook...

It all seemed so important back then. 

So, How's it Going?

On Monday we'll have been ten weeks in Axminster. Reacquainting myself with old East Devon birding haunts has been fun, and so has a toe-in-the-water sample of garden moth-trapping. If things continue in the same vein I shall be delighted. So, how are things going?

The long answer is contained in NQS posts for October and November, but the short answer is: 'Very nicely, thanks.' The last couple of days provide a typical snapshot...

Colyton WTW

Throughout the winter, Colyton WTW is a little oasis for insectivorous birds. There is a footpath along the north-eastern perimeter, flanked by a hedge that frequently is leaping with Chiffchaffs in the colder months. I spent a couple of hours there yesterday afternoon, though wondered if it might be a bit early yet. It wasn't, and there were plenty of birds, including at least one Siberian Chiffchaff. I went again this afternoon: Sibe Chiff (the same bird I think), a Firecrest, 5+ Goldcrests and who knows how many Chiffchaffs.

Colyton WTW is not easy viewing, but perseverance paid off and in the end I managed a few, mostly naff photos. Today's were the best...

Firecrest

Four frames from the only burst I managed of the Siberian Chiffchaff. The top right blur shows its snazzy yellow armpit.

So, a successful venture. And it won't be my last visit to Colyton WTW. The winter hasn't even started yet.

The Caspian Gull situation is just crazy right now. Last Saturday was wet and windy, and seemed ideal for a bit of Axe Estuary gulling. Steve had the same idea. Between us we turned up three Casps. Conditions were far from ideal for photography, with two of the birds at long range. Even so, here they all are...

A fairly classic-looking 1w Caspian Gull. Looked great through the scope.

Awful pic of what was actually another nice 1w Casp.

Not the loveliest 2w Casp ever, but p10 mirrors and moult all good.

Along with the third-winter bird featured in the previous post, these three bring my personal tally of Axe Casps in the last ten weeks to nine! And I am fairly certain there have been no repeats. But that's just the half of it...

I may have missed one or two, but based on Steve's recent tot-up I reckon we are now on around 38 for 2025. This compares with 38 previous Axe Casps, ever. Which is mad.

I have seen nine in 10 weeks; my first nine took eight YEARS!

There cannot be any doubt that something profound has happened in order for the status of Caspian Gull in East Devon (and presumably elsewhere in the South West?) to have changed so suddenly and dramatically. Caspian Gull is no longer a rare bird in Devon, or particularly scarce any more I guess. Well, for the moment at least. Future events might prove me wrong but I really cannot see any going back from here.

Finally, a moth catch-up. The garden tally stands at 28 species now, with the mid-month addition of these three...

Double-striped Pug. This was by far the commonest pug in our Bridport garden.

Yellow-line Quaker - a regular autumn moth but, as far as I can tell, a new one for me.
[I had this down as a Red-line Quaker, so many thanks to Steve Keen for correcting my ID. However, it does make me wonder if I have misidentified this species in the past!] 

Bittersweet Moth Scrobipalpa costella. Appears to be common enough, but it was a new moth for me.

A few more migrants came our way before the weather chilled off, but nothing unexpected...

The garden's third Olive-tree Pearl.

A pristine Rusty-dot Pearl.

That's probably it for moth-trapping in 2025. Unless we're suddenly due a plume of warm, African air and Sahara dust of course...

Niche Birds

Yesterday morning Clive found two Lesser Whitethroats by Seaton Bowls Club. Any Lesser Whitethroat in late November is probably going to be one of the eastern races, with Siberian Lesser Whitethroat Curruca curruca blythi I guess being the most likely candidate. I have never knowingly seen one of these things, so made an effort this morning...

Presumed Siberian Lesser Whitethroat

Without a DNA sample I don't think you can go much further than 'Mmmm...interesting...' but at least it was that, with its browny-brown-brown upperparts extending all the way onto the crown.

It was nice to bump into Tim and Ian, and to see both birds together very briefly at one point, but they didn't give themselves up to the camera without a struggle. I think all my photos depict the same bird...

Lots of white in the outer tail feathers, but can't say I can see any on the tip of t5

As well as palm berries, they did like the apples that Kev put out for them yesterday.

Bonus Black Redstart present in the same area.

I'll be honest here: I cannot get excited about a bird that needs its DNA unravelled before you can name it with any confidence. The Seaton birds appear to be Lesser Whitethroats from distant parts, and I'm quite happy to leave it at that and get on with stuff that doesn't require a sacrifice at the Genetic Temple.

Like tricky gulls, say.

There were a lot of gulls on the estuary this morning. Try as I might, nothing obvious jumped out. And then I noticed a bird on the water which just looked...interesting. It was slightly annoying really, an 'Ooh, what's this?...Ah, no, nothing...Hmm, wait a minute...' kind of bird. Really I wanted to get on and check the gulls I hadn't looked at yet, but couldn't let the thing go. In the end I took several photos while it was in the river, then a load more after it had flown to the muddy shore for a preen. Back home I loaded them onto the laptop, fired up the Gull Research website and found the pages for 3cy Caspian Gull, particularly the November page for pics and the September page for its wealth of ID info.

Finally I reached the conclusion that my annoying gull was a 3w Casp, which is not an age I've encountered previously. First, some photos. Then, some words...

It's the bird with its wings open.

And again

Note upperparts shade, and traces of tail band.

It's the headless bird on the left. Again, compare upperparts shade with HG top right, also BHGs and Med Gull.

Probably best upperwing photo I managed. Big p10 mirror (plus small one on p9) along with broad black bar on p5 and black on both webs of p4 all good.

The Gull Research page for 3cy Casps in September has much to say about moult and plumage development, primary patterns and bare parts, and I did consider systematically laying out the ID process I went through. But rather than regurgitate a load of stuff that anyone can read on that excellent web page, I shall just quote this bit:

'Despite often looking distinctive, third-winter and third-summer birds have no truly diagnostic plumage features. In essence, the distinctive features of younger birds have been lost, while the adult wing-tip pattern has not developed sufficiently for it to be considered critically important.'

In other words, a 3w Casp is subtle, and identified by the sum of its parts; no single feature nails it.

Suffice to say that the sum of this bird's parts is good enough for me, and I'm having it.