Monthly Archives: July 2026

Ecology, farming, Moths, Sustainable Farming Scheme,, Sustainable Farming Scheme,

Have you seen this rare moth?

New moth found this morning — an important find which confirms the good health of our oak woodland.

In Britain this Spotted Carpet Moth (nothing to do with carpets) hangs on in the Highland of Scotland and very locally in parts of the West Country. I have found one sighting in Eryri (Snowdonia) but nothing in Mid-Wales (I didn’t look very hard!)

This beautiful moth lays it’s eggs on Old Man’s Beard lichen, Usnea filipendula which festoons the branches of oak trees and itself indicates a pristine, pollution free atmosphere. Both could be Key Performance Indicators (KPI) if you are benchmarking as a Universal Action as part of the new, controversial Sustainable Farming Scheme. The caterpillars are green with black spots. The moth and its food are extinct in many parts of Britain. It is mainly spotted now in the mountainous areas of continental Europe and Scotland… And the Trannon Valley!

Usnea filipendula (Beard lichen) CC BY 2.5

Thanks to Bernol Haynold for the above photo — it’s too hot to go up into the wood and photograph our own!

Standard
Ecology, Moths, Natural Beauty

Secret Night-Life in the Trannon Valley!

Here I am, on my birthday. We are testing my birthday present, a state-of-the-art, battery-driven moth-trap.

It is a summer evening in the oak wood, we encourage insects, Some of them are man-eaters; hence the fetching veil. They pollenate and fascinate and fuel the food-chains, sustaining all the chicks, bats and baby mammals. They also give us an idea of how well we are doing, the numbers and variation give us an index of diversity which we can compare year on year.

Eyed Hawk Moth

WOODLAND MOTH SURVEY 01.07.2026

Number of moths identified: 128

Number of different species identified: 55

GARDEN MOTH SURVEY 01.07.2026

Number of moths Identified: 48

Number of different species identified: 31

Just to give you a taste of these under-appreciated creatures which are not dull and not boring!

Here are some of the more spectacular ones we collected and released in the morning.

HAWK MOTHS

Elephant Hawk Moth
Small Elephant Hawk Moth for comparison — it was flying 25.05.2026, can you see the differences?
Poplar Hawk Moth — found 7 of these giants in the garden trap.

EMERALD MOTHS

Large Emerald Moth

Common Emerald Moth

Light Emerald Moth

Smaller but just as beautiful:

Buff Arches Moth
Clouded Border Moth, we caught 4, this one made a break for it in the morning.
Map-winged Swift Moth

Small but exquisite!

Burnished Brass Moth

Just a taster and which was the most numerous? The Riband Wave — we caught 13 in the Woodland they are very variable.

Riband Wave

Got to go –getting dark, it’s warm and no rain is forecast but the moon should be obscured by cloud — perfect for trapping.

Standard