Sloe burn

Posted by Graeme Lyons , Friday, 20 March 2026 07:25

This story starts some 16 years ago, in the early days of my blog. Here was my first attempt to look for Sloe Carpet. As you can see, I failed but last night thanks to Dave Green, I did not. I headed out into the wild West Weald of West Sussex for some dusking and we were soon 'sloe dancing' around country roads by torch light with our nets like a couple of burks.

I realise I have not done an update on the 6000 Species in 20226 challenge for ages. So as of last night I am now on 1,549 species for the year, that's 25.8%. I have really 'sloed' down in March (and late Feb) to focus on desk work and a kitchen renovation, but come early April this is all going to change.

The first moth we caught was this Scorched Carpet. Gorgeous and NFY (I didn't want to put the 6000 species in 2026 logo on the photo of the Sloe Carpet {sorry Scorched Carpet}).


There was a lot on the wing. A Chestnut, dozens of Shoulder Stripes and a Brindled Pug. Then I caught my first Streamer of the night. What a moth this is, another year tick and very abundant. Also, annoyingly similar to a Sloe Carpet in flight, so I had to catch them all to check.

Then a noctuid landed in the grass in front of me, it was only a Blossom Underwing! Another year tick.

A Hebrew Character and a Satellite were netted but the Sloe Carpet was remaining hard to get. Dave suggested walking down a different lane. The mad rush of moths dropped off and we hadn't seen a moth for about 15 mins. The temperature dropped rather a lot too, when I spotted another Streamer. I netted it, only to find it was a box fresh Sloe Carpet!!! A lifer. It was listed as Nationally Scarce in the 2019 review and is genuinely uncommon. Look at the three white buttons along the back of the thorax. This is my 1,322 moth in the British Isles, putting me in 11th place for moths on the PSL rankings.

One final look in the trap unblocked Clouded Drab (never been so excited to see this), Marbled Brown and Frosted Green. I love going out at night doing natural history with a torch, especially at this time of year. And netting moths on the wing is such a work out. All that happened in just 1.5 hours, I was home by 9.00 pm.

Here's a breakdown of my progress so far on the challenge...


My targets are reached for; protists, springtails, bristletails and bryophytes.

Many thank to everyone who has sponsored me so far, please do consider sponsoring me if you can, I am fund raising for Sussex Wildlife Trust's reserves here.

You can sign up to the pan-species listing website here, it's totally free (although donations to the team are welcome).

And finally, you can order my book all about pan-species listing here, directly from Pelagic. 

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