Floodgates open

Suddenly, Boom! The soaring temperatures have brought an army of moths including my first, lovely Scarlet Tiger of 2026. This is the scrap of red jinking around your garden with the bright colours of a butterfly but the unmistakeably jerky and madcap flight of a moth. No leisurely fluttering-by here, as you will know if you have visited the mis-named 'Valley of the Butterflies' in Rhodes where Scarlet Tiger moths swarm.

The colours are an effective warning for birds which have never in my experience pounced on a Scarlet Tiger prematurely leaving the safety of the eggboxes during my inspections. Here below is the moth as I found it, next to a little micro, before our posing sessions above. The oily sheen of the black background to the top of the forewings is another delightful feature.

There were so many other visitors this morning and here they are; apologies for sticking largely to IDs in an effort to cope.  A pleasant dilemma to face after a quiet start to this season.

Rustic Shoulder-knot

The famous Peppered Moth; first of the year. Melanic ones, which used to dominate in the days of industrial pollution, are much scarcer now

Orange Footman - though rather a pallid one

Oak Hook-tip with those very distinctive wings

Common Rustic

Light Brocade

Monopis crocicapitella - a minute scrap of a micro

An Alder Moth I think - I'll return to this after a double-check

The good old Buff-tip, a twig? Or a cigar butt?

And another old faithful, the former immigrant but now resident Silver Y, one of the first moths I ever saw as, like the Scarlet Tiger, they also fly by day.

The Dainty Grass Rivulet, which safely fluttered away to safety immediately after this photo was taken.

Small Seraphim - what a lovely name!

Pyrausta purpuralis micro - much more purple and gold when fresh

Burnished Brass; another favourite which always brightens the trap

Common Carpet pretending to be a butterfly

And now more sensibly, as a moth

Sandy Carpet; such a delicate moth

Elephant Hawk; all the grand old staples are coming at once!

Common Marbled Carpet; common but distinguished-looking

Green Tortrix micro

And a different view of an Orange Footman

Tachystola acroxantha micro

The good old 'Pinocchio moth' - the Snout

Flame Carpet; another nice one from this very varied tribe

Mottled Pug

Large Yellow Underwing; an early arrival and the year's first to show up here. There will be many more in due course.

Heart and Dart - one of the earliest visitors to the trap more than 20 years ago

Clouded Silver; delicious

Angle Shades; a striking moth often found resting by day; or at least more often than most moths which admittedly isn't saying much

The Orange Footman again

Poplar Grey

Light Emerald; their delicate green quickly fades

Boo! The good old Eyed Hawk

An interesting duo: a Clouded-bordered Brindle and its aberration f. combusta

And finally the /bird-droppig moth', the Lime-speck Pug.  One of the few pugs I can unhesitatingly identify

 Phew!  Now I will go and lie down...

Hawkeye

The arrival of my biggest regular moth, the Privet Hawk, is always a moment to celebrate, marking the fact that high season for my hobby is getting under way. Here is this year's debut, as I found him or her below, and then with wings spread out above, to reveal the wasp-like warning colouration.

It would be a brave bird which tackled something of this size, whatever its colour, and my resident robins showed absolutely no interest. The Privet follows the Poplar Hawk, always the first to turn up here, and you can be sure that others will be along soon.

Plenty of smaller but lovely moths were there to join the party; a Cinnabar and Figure of 80 below, followed by that pleasantly original-looking species the Chocolate-tip.  The Cinnabar's bright colouring is also a warning to predators and a justified one; both the yellow and black caterpillars and the adult moth are poisonous.

There are truly vast numbers of maybugs or Common Cockchafers in the eggboxes at the moment and they are often busy ensuring a new generation, like the couple hard at work on the right. It's a tremendous sight when one of these curious, armour-plated insects takes off and starts banging around inside the trap. No wonder Nicholas Tesla as a boy tried the impossible task of getting four to power a model aeroplane. Alas, they all flew off giddily in different directions.

Here's a Common Wainscot looking like an angel moth, followed by that handsome Visitor the Coronet and then a Scorched Wing with a Treble Lines.  The Scorched Wing's pattern and colour is a masterpiece of optical art as camouflage. Even prolonged staring leaves you - or at least me - not entirely certain of where all the lines and shades are placed. What must it be like for a predatory bird?

Next we have a Rustic Shoulder-knot with another Cinnabar among the distant eggboxes behind, then a graceful and aptly-named Willow Beauty and a Marbled Minor. Then - pardon the intrusion - more maybugs busily if slightly complicatedly engaged... 

The moth tally continues with a White-point, a Cypress Carpet with its jet-fighter appearance and a rather stylish photo, though I says it who shouldn't, of a third Cinnabar.

The next picture is a second Scorched Wing, still with the eye-baffling lines and shades but showing a habit of many smaller moths - the extremely expressive waving of the genitalia to attract a mate. I'm not sure that the maybugs have any need of this gambit, but they might be interested in trying it.

Away from the moths, here's a fine Peacock butterfly which I spied on a walk into Oxford, basking in the sun on a canal bridge. And below it, another Common Wainscot glowing orange this time and a Buff Ermine, a lovely buttery-coloured cousin of the beautiful White Ermine which made its debuit for the year just the other day.