Martin's Moths

Penny has a biology degree and sometimes asks disconcerting questions. For example: do you check whether moths are arriving at the same time...

We have jays here, noisy but beautiful. They regularly leave the odd feather from their sky-blue shoulder marks and here's one, designed...

Much as I love England, there are times when you think about living somewhere...well...more exciting. We have so many small brown moths and ...

Well if they reform the upper chamber one day, maybe they will admit this character. He's wearing Ermine after all. I'm in a bit of...

Here's one of the few moths which may be relatively familiar to everyone: the Swallow-tailed. It comes to lighted windows after dark, l...

A few more visitors from recent days - ones I've been puzzling over in vain, so I finally turned to Jax of Yorkshire Butterfly Conservat...

"Here! What about us?" cry the moths, and they are right. I've been distracted by gaudy butterflies and spiky caterpillars for...

This caterpillar was saved from squashing yesterday by Penny, and I was saved from being the squasher. If its luck continues, there will be ...

For ancestral reasons, I spent part of yesterday at North West Leeds Liberals' summer garden party, where impudent people were flinging ...

After a while, you get used to the patterns on moths' wings and, for all the variety, start to see consistencies. So often, there are fo...

Oh dear, a sad story this morning. But then Nature isn't the cosy world which children's anthropomorphic books and pictures may lead...

Another debut last night, along with a great many moths. Here is an Orange Ladybird, one of a pair which were busying about when I went to i...

We used to talk about mysterious Grey Men who directed the nation's affairs. Here are a couple of grey moths, although they are too ligh...

Here's a pretty visitor to the trap: a Brown China Mark. It's officially a micro-moth but it's time that someone promoted it to ...

Another first for this journal today: we've had eels, crabs and even a snake. Now here's a dragonfly debut. I'm sorry it's a...

I'm going to live off yesterday's moths for a few days, like some sort of entomological camel. We've got a friend staying and if...

Help! Stop! The moths are pouring in now and I am overwhelmed. Grey Daggers, Light Emeralds, the first of the various yellow underwings... i...

Moths and butterflies have yet to feature on Wimbledon TV coverage, unlike various sorts of bird which make occasional appearances to the cr...

The moth season is really under way now, and the trap was like Noah's Ark this morning. Two Poplar Hawks, two Burnished Brass, two Buff ...

A distinguished guest artist today: my Guardian colleague David Sillitoe, who came with me to do a piece about the new National Centre for t...