My third ever Dewick's Plusia moth this morning.

 Tuesday 21st September 2021.

The Dewick's Plusia moth.

It looks as though my new blog is up and running on the internet due to a superb young lad who works in Curry’s, Anchorage Park. My computer crashed on me last night (ouch!) and so I paid a visit to Curry’s to see if I could get it fixed, but to no avail and therefore I decided to opt to buy a new Laptop instead. OK, I am not a computer whizz kid and my computer skills are limited, but am a quick learner and this young lad, late this afternoon, really helped me negotiate the computer with ease, although typing on this new keyboard will take getting used to.

A very pale Lesser Yellow Underwing.

My moth box came up with the goods this morning when I found my 3rd ever Dewick’s Plusia (top photo) perched nicely behind the moth box on the white sheet. I quickly ‘potted’ the moth and took it indoors to get a better photo of it later in the evening along with an interesting moth that was eventually confirmed as a Lesser Yellow Underwing, a rather pale individual that was quite worn.

This morning, the following moths were present:

• Box Tree Moth 7

• Dewick’s Plusia 1

• Garden Carpet 1

• Light Emerald 1

• L-album Wainscot 1

• Lesser Yellow Underwing 1

• Willow Beauty 1

• Common Plume 2

• Light Brown Apple Moth 1

• Brown House Moth 1

• Tachystola acroxantha 1

OK, not a great deal of moths, but it certainly is getting cooler at night and unless we get a very late heatwave, I fully expect the moth numbers to dwindle, but there is still time to get more species under my belt this year. Giant House Spiders are now on the prowl and one individual was on the brick wall opposite the box with a further two more seen at my Fratton Branch today. Both Cellar Spiders and False Black Widows are certainly on the increase in and around my house, but simply find them fascinating.

I was busy working on the Ambulance today and how my work colleague puts up with me is a mystery as I was pointing out all the birds I was looking at including Jays, several Common Buzzards and at least one Kestrel. We spotted a pair of young Foxes this morning at the back of our Fareham branch as we woke them from a nice snooze in the morning sunshine.

A Box Tree Moth and a Light Emerald.

Yesterday, I was working over Warblington Cemetery and I was somewhat surprised at how many birder’s were making their way to see the Glossy Ibis that was still present at Nore Barn. Even my work colleagues were asking what were they looking for. While there, in a gorgeous blue sky, a couple of Common Buzzards soared overhead; a female Sparrowhawk also was seen flying over being chased by several Crows and several flocks of Meadow Pipits and Swallows flew by also. A Southern Hawker buzzed around a tall Yew Tree by the Church. In the afternoon, I had work to do over The Oaks Crematorium and making my way to the main entrance, I pointed out a flock of 5 Yellow Wagtails going over to another work colleague.

After meeting Andy Fisher’s nephew, Richard, last Saturday morning, Andy and myself are going to join his Whatsapp group page, the 'Lazee Birders' ,which should be really interesting for the future. Hopefully, some interesting bird sightings are on the horizon.