the soundtrack of Sherwood..

A hot and humid midsummers day suggested a good night for garden mothing.

An odd name for a striking if common moth and widespread across the county, this was a first record for us..

The Cedar Walk, with its wide mown paths enclosed by thick understories of bramble and wild raspberry beneath pines and birch, provided protection from the breeze and is a haven for moths.

A moth with a party trick

Perhaps not much to look at, the humble bee moth carves out a living in bee hives and nests acting as a kind of hive janitor: albeit, one whose young raid the place for food. Bee moths party piece is a unique mating ritual that includes emitting a high-pitched sound from specially adapted sections of their abdomen.

Juvenile tawnies continued to call until dusk had become fully dark night - an evocative sound of the solstice; roding woodcock heard again too: both the soundtrack of Sherwood for millennia.

Sulphurous..

Brimstone moths and butterflies are so-named due to their sulphurous colour.

It is, of course, a diminished soundtrack. Gone forever the black grouse,  the crew-crex of the corncrake. Recently lost is the cuckoo. Soon to be gone too the swallow, house martin or swift? I took a breakfast of grated cheddar down to an especially-confiding young robin.

A big bruiser of a lesser stag beetle joined us in the kitchen.

A male of the species

Impressive mouthparts for a creature that, as an adult is confined to drinking tree sap or fruit juices.

Our total for the night of 306 macro moths of 59 species was good for us.

Dr Sheila Wright of Curator of Biology at Nottingham Natural History Museum lets the air out of our balloon by reminding us that we’ve lost 90% of our invertebrates over the last century.