David Bradley's Nature Matters

There was a shiny moth sitting on the sheet behind the trap last night when we returned from our evening’s entertainment, I didn’t immediately recognise the species, so potted it for a closer look. Golden Twin-spot, Chrysodeixis chalcites. It didn’t seem to be mentioned on the latest updates on our county mothing site nor in the Cambs online discussion group. So, I was vaguely excited that my specimen of this rare migrant from the Continent might have been a first for the county. I asked our…

ObsIdentify and similar nature ID apps can be frustratingly flaky. Anyone who has used them regularly will have seen some spectacularly confident wrong answers. I had a warbler in a tree that one app thought was a harbour seal and another obvious beetle that it flagged as some kind of American rodent! Yet there is another side to the story: sometimes it is astonishingly good, particularly when used to confirm an identification you already know almost for sure rather than to make one from…

The UK has five owl species that are well known and often encountered, but seeing any of them depends on where you live and perhaps knowing how and where to look. Some are surprisingly easy to find, while others are much more secretive. And, of course, some are hunters of the night and much harder to spot. Barn Owl The Barn Owl is probably the easiest of Britain’s owls to tick. Head for farmland with margins, ditches and road edges at dusk on a dry evening, and you might see one hunting…

As the years go by, each mothing season gets perhaps more samey. The usual suspects become very familiar, and the NFGs (new for the garden) become few and far between. Obviously, the first season you record everything is NFG, and then for a year or two after, there’s the ebb and flow of species so that you still see lots of novelty. Clay Triple-lines moth on a piece of similarly coloured wood Now that I’ve been mothing for 9 seasons, I don’t expect to see many NFGs at all. For 2026, it’s been…

Some time ago, I used some music tools to reimagine 30 of my old songs. You can listen to the new versions and also click through to the originals here. The stories were all written and recorded over the last 15 years or so, straddling many different genres from rock and pop to funk and soul. I cannot claim that there was ever a narrative arc, after all these are just 30 of some 200+ songs I’ve written and recorded in that time. However, in reimagining the songs as if I had a proper record…

I’ve been in the business a long time…since the 80s…would you believe? My contacts list is long, needless to say, many thousands of people and still growing on an almost daily basis. Over the years, I’ve had a lot of random messages, in the post, by fax, then email as other people gradually got online, and, of course, via my websites and social media. When I rebranded Sciencebase a little while ago to randomly mark its 27th anniversary online (July 2026), not counting the five years since my…

The Marsh Pearl or Anania perlucidalis to those who prefer their taxonomy with a Greco-Latin twist and a side of taxonomic musical chairs. Formerly dubbed the Fenland Pearl (a name that proved far too geographically localised), this modest little grass moth (Crambidae) is living proof that nature loves to rewrite the maps when entomologists aren’t looking. Marsh Pearl, Anania perlucidalis It has shimmering, pearly-white wings spanning just 21 to 23 millimetres, it wears its pale brown markings…

It’s easy enough to use ObsID or similar apps, Google Lens, or whatever you prefer to get a quick identification for the wildlife you photograph. But all apps can fail when there’s ambiguity in a photograph. I’ve had at least one plant photo that one app thought was a harbour seal. Moreover, some apps will give you a name that isn’t the vernacular name used in your region, so you might occasionally imagine you’ve found some rare bunting when, in fact, it was just a Yellowhammer, or whatever.…

Three scarce and vulnerable moths of the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire landscape, the Four-spotted (Tyta luctuosa), Marsh Carpet (Gagitodes sagittata), and Silver-barred (Deltote bankiana), illustrate an important principle for nature recovery: it is not enough to provide the right foodplant. We need to restore the habitat system in which that plant naturally belongs. The Four-spotted is associated with warm, open, sparsely vegetated ground. Its larvae feed on Field Bindweed, normally…

Every moth-er gradually develops an instinctive eye for what “normal” looks like after handling hundreds, if not thousands, of moths each season. An Elephant Hawk-moth should be about this big. A Silver Y about that big. Most individuals fall comfortably within those expectations. Every so often you find an unusually large or unusually small specimen, but they’re exceptions. This year has felt different. A couple of nights ago I caught an Elephant Hawk-moth no bigger than a Small Elephant…

The name Oak Processionary moth has an almost whimsical ring to it, conjuring up an image of tiny insects dutifully marching through the woods in orderly file. The reality is rather less charming. Native to central and southern Europe, Thaumetopoea processionea was once little more than an occasional visitor to Britain, with adult males drifting across the Channel to the south coast in late summer. That changed in 2006 when breeding populations were discovered in West London. Since then, the…

My eighth anniversary of garden mothing and an oddity turned up in our Cambridgeshire garden last night. A moth new for the garden (NFG), although that’s not particularly odd, I get a few dozen NFGs every year. But, this one, Dusky-lemon Sallow (Cirrhia gilvago) is reported in Manley’s British Moths and Butterflies as being on the wing from August to October species. Dusky-lemon Sallow camouflaged quite nicely on an old pitted log Now, it’s only just over a week or so until August, but other…

The Ni Moth (Trichoplusia ni) is a rare migrant to the UK. At first glance, it’s not too dissimilar to the more common migrant the Silver Y (Autographa gamma). They’re both plusia-type moths, noctuids in the group Plusiinae. While the perhaps more familiar Silver Y has a silvery-white “Y”, or Greek gamma-shaped, marking on its forewings, the Ni has something not dissimilar, almost like a broken version of the gamma where a white spot sits adjacent to an arc. The early naturalists whimsically…

The Small Mottled Willow, Spodoptera exigua, is a species of moth in the family Noctuidae. Its larvae are highly polyphagous, feeding on a wide variety of herbaceous plants, including both wild and cultivated species. The larvae can cause significant crop damage under favourable conditions, particularly in intensive agricultural systems, and the species is therefore regarded as an important pest in many parts of the world. Small Mottled Willow on a log. Unusually its forewings are not curled…

A member of our Wild Fen Edge Whatsapp group alerted members to the presence of Wasp Spiders in one of our local nature reserves, specifically on the edge of the small woodland adjacent to Wort’s Meadow in Landbeach, Cambs. It’s 8 years since I last saw a Wasp Spider, Argiope bruennichi, and that was at RSPB Lakenheath. So, I thought I’d take a look. View of the upperside of the Wasp Spider’s abdomen showing its waspish pattern; photo also shows the web’s zig-zag stabilimentum The WFE member…

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A leading agronomist and conservation expert has proposed a major overhaul of England’s approach to agricultural environmental management. He argues that biodiversity recovery and productive farming can be achieved together. The proposal recommends tighter controls on pesticide use, improved monitoring, and more targeted conservation funding. The recommendations come from Simon Ward of Increment Ltd, a Cambridge-based company that provides a wide range of expertise to the rural sector. Ward…

There are some species of moth where most of the members of the genus look almost identical in the adult form. When they’re larvae, it’s usually easy to tell which you are looking at as they feed on a particular plant specific to their species, but not always, Moreover, the larvae themselves may be distinctive. But, if you only have the adult, then they require a specialist kind of examination known as gen det, which you can find more about in my mothing glossary or if their genome is known,…

Coming up with a decent setlist for a live performance is quite the juggling act, you need to get an audience warmed up as soon as you can, but you don’t want to go too hard when you start, otherwise there’s no lift. You need to create a kind of narrative arc, in the words of scriptwriters, to draw them in, excite them a little, getting them nodding along and applauding, then within a few songs have them dancing and take them to a big climactic finale, with, hopefully, a final burst in an…

The Norfolk Broads is the only place you are likely to see native Swallowtail butterflies in the UK today. There has, for many years, been a suggestion that it is distinct from its various European counterparts. A paper from Nabholz et al. discusses the genetics of this wonderful creature. Co-author Mark Collins (erstwhile President of the Swallowtail and Birdwing Butterfly Trust) tells me the main conclusion is that “We have confirmed beyond doubt the clear separation of our British…

After I light up, mothically speaking, I usually have a scout about the garden for moths that are activating as it gets dark but not necessarily heading for the trap. I almost stepped on a Pipistrelle bat swooping low to grab one of the little creatures. I got to the ivy at the back of the garden and spotted a Yellow Shell and a couple of Least Carpet nectaring on the nearby wild ragwort. Then, a dark moth was caught in the torchlight. I managed to pot him as he landed, turned out it was a…

Caddisflies are a little bit like moths, but without the scales on their wings. They’re the Trichoptera, which means hairy or bristly-winged rather than the scaly wings of the Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies. And these two groups share an ancient common ancestor dating back to around 300 million years ago, a time before flowering plants when the trees that lived in that era would ultimately become the coal we mine today. It would be another 70 million years before the first dinosaurs…

I had a puzzling micro moth in the UV trap a couple of nights ago. It was about 8-9mm long, grey with some well-defined black markings. And, as it was walking about in the moth pot, it did so with its forewings splayed. Very odd. My first thought was that it was perhaps an aberrant Nettle-tap, it had that kind of demeanour, but the colour and the markings were wrong. ObsID was no help. Depending on which phone snap I used, it would tell me a different species every time. I think I had a choice…

My first Buff Arches moth in several years. Once it settled it was rather obliging for the photo shoot. Buff Arches moth with its wings open, resting on a stone As many Sciencebase regulars will know, when this exquisite moth tents its wings it looks very peculiar, almost as if there’s a smooth area where a chunk is missing. The early naturalists called it Habrosyne pyritoides, the species component of which alludes to it resembling a chunk of “iron pyrites”. The Habrosyne genus name roughly…

TL;DR: Mothing is the activity/hobby of observing, recording, and photographing moths. You don’t need expensive equipment, specialist knowledge, or a massive garden to start—just curiosity. If you are interested in wildlife, photography, natural history, or citizen science, mothing is one of the most accessible and rewarding activities you can take up. Robinson moth trap with UV/fluorescent tube Most “moth-ers” use harmless light traps to safely attract moths at night, allowing them to be…

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The Miller and the Dagger moths are ostensibly very similar. Triangular, noctuid (owlet) moths with grey wings with black markings. In th my picture the Dagger is the upper moth. It’s very, very difficult to know with out gen det (genital dissection), larval history, or DNA analysis whether its one of two species – Dark (Acronicta tridens) or Grey Dagger (A. psi). The Miller (A. leporina) is very similar although markedly different when looked at closely. Top: The Dagger at the Edge of Night…

When I first started writing and recording songs, I had a problem that most songwriters know well. You hear something in your head. Not just the words and melody. Not just the chords. You hear the atmosphere, the texture, the arrangement, the emotional weight of it. You hear the finished thing. Then reality intervenes. You have your instruments, your voice, your skills. Somewhere between that complete musical feast in your head and the finished recording, you have to make compromises and accept…

Opening this morning’s moth trap, there were a fair few moths, 80 or so of some 33 species. Of which 29 of those were Heart & Dart. It had been wet night, but 15 C minimum, so not cold. Small Mottled Willow, Spodoptera exigua, also known as the Beet Armyworm, new for our garden There were very few clipped wings lying around the trap, thankfully, but one I did find was of the lovely Lilac Beauty, which had, despite its leafy appearance, been identified as edible by the Great Tit that has learnt…

The Scarce Chaser, Libellula fulva, is a medium-sized dragonfly (about 40 to 50 mm long). The adults begin to emerge in late May. Both sexes feature dark wing bases and often distinct black wing tips. The males, however, have vibrant blue eyes and a powder-blue body that ends with a black tip on the tail. Whereas the females have brown eyes and an ochre-orange body marked with a line of dark triangles running down the centre of the abdomen. Female Scarce Chaser This species is found locally…