NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

It has always been an ambition of mine to have my own coastal garden, not just for the birding but also for the running of a moth trap. It just so happens that I find myself staying at a friends house in Littlestone, Kent, for maybe three weeks - and the MV has made the trip with me! Luckily, the full-time garden back in Surrey has proved its worth moth-wise, so this will be no ‘chalk and cheese’ comparison. What a coastal location brings, especially on the south coast, is an increase in the chance of trapping scarce migrants. The weather isn’t conducive to migration at the moment, but things look promising at the end of the week. Highlights so far? Light Feathered Rustic, Cream-spot Tiger, Tawny Shears, Sharp-angled Peacock and Ethmia bipunctella are all species that I don’t (or rarely) encounter back home, plus Dark Spectacle, Least Black Arches, Chocolate-tip, Currant Pug and three hawk-moths - Eyed (above), Poplar and Small Elephant.

When I started back garden MV moth trapping in 1990, Eyed Hawk-moth was an annual, albeit single figured component of the year's tally. Then, from the mid-1990s numbers fell. From the turn of the millennium it disappeared altogether, so the individual above, (trapped last Thursday), was a most welcome surprise. Of the non-migratory hawk-moths, Privet is still the rarest here, with only two individuals recorded.