Embark on a visual journey through the fascinating world of moths found in a sub-urban garden in Abingdon throughout the course of a year. This is my diary of enchanting encounters with moths and macro photography, capturing the stunning, intricate beauty of these often-overlooked creatures.
The mild still nights on Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th April were perfect for these mid-spring moths. The catches were good with 40/16 on the Tuesday night and 86/18 on the Wednesday night. The Chinese character is a marvellous moth and is very easily overlooked as it is small and very much resembles a bird dropping.
A great catch for early April in the woodland at the back of Cothill Nature Reserve (BBOWT), with 55/17 including a Scalloped thorn and Brown silver lines which were both new for me. Also a couple of Great prominents (left) and a load of Frosted green moths made this a really exciting haul.
A couple of lovely moths visited the traps this morning. A beautiful fresh Streamer, with lovely purple scales and an extremely early Scorched carpet. You can see how the camouflage works when photographed against the wood.
I have permission from BBOWT to trap in the Nature Reserves at Cothill, near Abingdon. I have trapped a couple of times in March and have recorded a few species that I have never caught in my garden. My first ever Lead-coloured drab and Early tooth striped. Looking forward to seeing what else I get in this special habitat throughout the year.
It was a very mild night so I had high hopes for some decent moths. In among a total of 70 moths of 11 species, there were three species new for the year (NFY) including the Oak-tree pug, the Nut-tree tussock and the Pale Pinion. The Pale pinion has an excellent hair-style when viewed front on!
The Emperor has arrived! A stunning male Emperor moth arrived at the lure in the garden in the afternoon sunshine on Saturday, attracted by the pheromone using its incredible antenna.
Good night for early March
FitterMoths is a personal project dedicated to documenting the moths encountered in my garden in Abingdon, Oxfordshire throughout the course of a year. It's a space to share my passion for entomology through regular trapping logs and to exhibit the captivating beauty of moths through macro photography.
I started moth trapping as an 8-year old with my Dad and brother in 1982 in York and have been hooked ever since. During lockdown, at the start of the 2020 mothing season, I decided to record the date of the first sighting for each species. In 2025, I recorded every single moth I caught all year. Check out the Yearly round up page to find out more from the 2025 season.
How can moths be that interesting?
Well, first up, there so many different beautiful varieties (over 2500 species in the UK). They come in hundreds of different shapes, sizes and colours. Some have evolved the most spectacular camouflage, others have patterns designed to startle would-be predators and others have developed to mimic more dangerous insects. The thing that appeals to me most is that you never know what you'll find in the trap in the morning.
I love looking at blogs from other moth-ers around the country to find out what they are catching. Some of my favourites are:
The iPhone Pro series have an excellent macro camera. This is very useful for documenting moths and also for getting help in identifying some of the trickier species (HINT: use the ObsIdentify app). This year, 2026, I splashed out on a DSLR camera and a macro lens. The quality is so much better. Check out the Photo gallery page to see the moths as I find them through 2026.
Interested in how these moths are found and photographed?
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Explore how to encourage moths to visit your garden and how to trap them.
Explore the photographic equipment used to capture these close-up shots
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