Mark Lawlor's Nature Blog

July was all about the moths, and I had four new lifers during the month and a couple more new for the garden. A great find was a Fiery Clearwing just near the house, in the St. Sampsons School orchard, feeding on ragwort flowers. It was only a couple of years ago that this species was restricted to Bordeaux, it toe-hold in the island. But, I suppose with the last couple of warm summers, it seems to be spreading suddenly. I had a look round at some of the nearby dead sorrel stems, and found tiny black eggs dotted along the stems, so I suspect there will be more here next year.

Fiery Clearwing - St Sampsons HS area, 4 Jul 26

Moth-trapping in the garden had some excellent species but did not have the huge numbers as in June. The start of the month was best, as the warm temperatures continued. After last month, seeing my first Latin on the cliffs, I had a second on 6th July, a new garden species. That night was the busiest of the month with 29 Small Mottled Willows, a Silky Wainscot (first for many years), a Splendid Brocade, and a late Pine Beauty.

The only surprising species on 8th July were two Little Emeralds in the trap. Not a super rare species in Guernsey but something I had never seen before. A third Little Emerald flew into the kitchen on 19th also. Another surprising new macro moth for me was the impressive Mocha which was on the outside of the trap on 23rd July, a rare species in Guernsey with not many records. Oak Processionary is a species which is on the up, and I had 1 on 23rd, 3 on 28th and 2 on 30th. The other new species for the garden was Phalonidia manniana on 21st.

The Entomological Section went on a few field-trapping sessions, which are useful for seeing species that do not really wander into the garden very often. We had traps in the Vale Pond area on 4th July, hopefully looking for saltmarsh species, but, apart from lots of Coleophora salicorniae, we didn’t get any other speciality, apart from the soldier fly Nemotelus notatus (Flecked Snout). We did attract a few species from the nearby coastal dunes with a superb Shore Wainscot and my first White Colon for many, many years. Other notable species were Clepsis spectrana, Sitochroa palealis, Loxostege sticticalis, and Silky Wainscot.

Teleiopsis diffinis - Vale Pond, 4 Jul 26

We also trapped Silbe on 18th July. We had a super selection, but only one new one for me, the tiny tortrix Ancylis diminutana. Other notable moths were Webb’s Wainscot, Lesser Spotted Pinion, Little and Small Emerald, and my first Metalampra italica for 20 years. A new lepidoptera for the garden was a brief visit of a Brown Argus on 19th July, now seemingly widespread in Guernsey after not occurring here at all when I first arrived. There was an influx of Clouded Yellows late in the month and amongst 5 at Rousse Tower on 26th, I saw a superb helice variety.

Trioza centranthi galls on Red Valerian - Delancey, 12 Jul 26 - just keeping your eye out for oddities, like these weird reddish curls on a Red valerian growing out of a roadside wall can reveal new species for Guernsey.

I had five days on a trip to Jersey mid-July with the school. Not really a wildlife-finding mission, but whilst waiting around for pupils to do their activities, there’s always things to see if your eyes are sharp enough, and I picked up a few new species.

*Gymnancyla canella* - ST Brelade, Jersey, 16 Jul 26 - a rare coastal species that feeds on Prickly Saltwort - new for me.

Pacific Oyster - ST Brelade, Jersey, 16 Jul 26

Large Skipper - Jersey Zoo, 17 Jul 26 - this line of lavender at the zoo had a least ten Hummingbird Hawk-moths feeding along it, as well as numerous butterflies.

June was all about the lepidoptera, with some terrific catches in the traps. I’ll start with 20th June because that’s when I saw one of my most wanted species - Latin. We’d set a few traps down on the cliffs down at Corbiere, hoping for a few good migrants or rarities, and it was certainly a good choice of nights to do this. One of the first things I saw when I looked inside my trap, clinging to the edge of the cliff, was this little hairy-legged weirdo. With its pink swirls, white splatters and golden-brown scales, and its crinkled wings and crooked antennae, and its furry legs akimbo, it was a superb specimen.

There were lots and lots of other things in the trap too, and even rarer was Sciota rhenella (Poplar Knot-horn), a rare immigrant to the UK, and new for Guernsey. Although similar to many other species of long-winged pyralids, the broad black band stood out.

The traps were heaving with about 580 moths of 110 species identified, including the subtle Agonopterix scopariella (Broom Buff) which was new to me but no doubt common on the broom plants on the clifftops. Other moths in the traps were 243 Large Yellow Underwings (I’ve never seen so many), 5 Small Mottled Willows, a Palpita vitrealis, 2 Radford’s Flame Shoulders, 28 Barrett’s Marbled Coronets, and a Catoptria verellus, a species I hadn’t seen for years.

Moth trap set up at Rue des Bergers/Pre D’Enfer NR

On 13th June we also had a field-trapping session, at Pre d’Enfer, in the rushes and reeds by the pond. In amongst the selection in the morning were two new species for me, Aethes cnicana (Thistle Conch) and Eudonia delunella (Pied Conch), plus, what turned out to be Coleophora taeniipennella (Small Rush Case-bearer) which was commonly netted in the evening. It was mostly expected species but a Grey Arches was only the second I have seen.

As we were in the unusual position of being in front of the hide, we had a potter around in the evening. There were lots and lots of Aproaerema larseniella and Glyphterix thrasonella there and I found a few figwort weevils on the Water Figwort, which were Cionus hortulanus, rarely recorded in Guernsey. Also, we were able to see two of the very few Royal Fern plants which grows on the island.

It was another fantastic month of trapping in the garden, although the conditions were not great in the first half of June. As the weather became hotter mid-month, I had over 80 species on 17th and 19th albeit containing nothing unexpected. There were similar numbers on 22nd but this included a few better species. I had only my second Eudemis profundana (Oak Marble), after one in 2004, a Catoptria verellus (Marbled Grass Moth), the first since 2018, a Lunar-spotted Pinion, a True Lover’s Knot, and an incredible 29 Brown-tails, after just one in the whole of 2024.

Conditions were even better on the night of 24th June, with the air feeling warm and sticky and the temperatures still 22°C at 10PM. In nearby France, during the day, it had been in the upper 30s and with the breeze drifting from the east from Normandy, it resulted in a very busy night. I counted up 472 moths of 121 species (although this does not include the c.200 Ectoedemia heringella in the trap, which I never count, just estimate). Looking back over the last ten years this is my largest count and second largest species number (124 is my record I think).

There wasn’t any big rarities in there, but good macros included my first Oak Hook-tip for ages, 3 Broad-bordered YU, a Pearly Underwing, a Scarce Merveille du Jour, 7 Small Mottled Willows, a Bordered Straw, and 31 Brown-tails. I also totted up 97 Large Yellow Underwings, which might be usual to many but is unheard of in my garden. Micro-wise, there were 7 Twenty-plume Moths, another Catoptria verellus, and 2 Acrobasis tumidana. Also noticeable was the number of other insects that came in, mainly attracted to the white sheet and walls, lots of weird beetles and flies that need identifying, and there was an unfamiliar hopper. This turned out to be Aphrophora salicina which has never been recorded before in Guernsey, and I had 4 or 5 of them this one night!

Oak Hook-tip - garden, 24 Jun 26 - now its a case of looking at all the Spiny H-T in case I spot an Oak.

The night of 26th June was also very good, this time 330 moths of 101 species, with another Acrobasis tumidana, a Splendid Brocade, Caloptilia leucopennella, and still 27 Brown-tails. I had the trap out on just 6 days in June and I managed 1737 moths and 210 species.

On 20th June I received a message that White-letter Hairstreak had been seen by The Bowl car park, in the same spot as someone snapped a pic of one last year. When I got down there I soon saw one near the top of one of the small elm trees, and after a while in the blazing heat we managed to see three individuals. This indicates, along with 2025’s sighting, that White-letter Hairstreak has colonised Guernsey, which is somewhat unexpected. This is the first time I have seen this butterfly in UK&CI, although I saw a few in Germany once. It’s very rare that I get a butterfly tick nowadays.

White-letter Hairstreak - The Bowl, 20 Jun 26

On 26th June, a bat was found resting in the school canteen and rescued and put in a box. Luckily, I was nearby and took a few phone pics. I was delighted that it wasn’t the expected Pip’, but a fabulous and freaky Grey Long-eared Bat. This species is quite rare in the UK (Brown LEB being more common), but Grey is the standard one here. The second pic below shows better the greyish fur on the upperside. Another unexpected tick.

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