Welcome

Hello and welcome to my moth Blog. I now reside in a small village in East Cambridgeshire called Fordham. My Blog's aim is to promote and encourage others to participate in the wonderful hobby that is Moth-trapping.
Moth records are vital for building a picture of our ecosystem around us, as they really are the bottom of the food chain. They are an excellent early indicator of how healthy a habitat is. I openly encourage people to share their findings via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
So why do we do it? well for some people it is to get an insight into the world of Moths, for others it is to build a list of species much like 'Twitching' in the Bird world. The reason I do it....you just never know what you might find when you open up that trap! I hope to show what different species inhabit Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
On this Blog you will find up-to-date records and pictures.
I run a trap regularly in my garden and also enjoy doing field trips to various localities over several different counties.
Please also check out the links in the sidebar to the right for other people's Blogs and informative Websites.
Thanks for looking and happy Mothing!

KEY

NFY = New Species For The Year
NFG = New Species For The Garden
NEW! = New Species For My Records

Any Species highlighted in RED signifies a totally new species for my records.

If you have any questions or enquiries then please feel free to email me, I have now removed commenting as the bots were starting to appear
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Monday, 23 February 2026

Weekend Mothing

Mild weather is in charge currently, but cheesus (As my son would say) has it been windy! it's also been rather wet at times so not ideal for pristine moths.

It had been two full weeks since the trap had had its last outing, owing to it being either too cold or too windy, but come Saturday night, the odds were in favour of attracting at least something.

On Saturday night I managed 14 moths of 6 species
On Sunday night I managed 8 moths of 6 species.
 
Both good returns for my flat open garden with very little winter habitat or shelter.
 
The best moth was a Grey Shoulder-knot on the Saturday night. Sunday brought about another new species for the year, a 'brilliant white' Agonopterix alstromeriana, one of the commonest moths in my garden, with 100s of records throughout the year.
 
It's getting even milder as we head into the middle of the week.
 

Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 14 species

 
21/02/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths 
  
Grey Shoulder-knot 1 [NFY] 
Chestnut 2
Common Quaker 4
Hebrew Character 2
March Moth 4 
Pale Brindled Beauty 1

Micro Moths 
 
There were none!
 
 
22/02/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap
 
Macro Moths 
  
Chestnut 1
Common Quaker 3
Pale Brindled Beauty 1

Micro Moths 
 
Agnopterix alstromeriana 1 [NFY]
Acleris schalleriana 1 
Agonopterix heracliana 1
 
Grey Shoulder-knot

 
 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 20:28