A Blair's Mocha was unexpected.

Wednesday 21st September 2022.

This Blair's Mocha was my 4th for the year in my garden.

A fresh, cloudless sky morning to start the day with, but it wasn't till 7am till it was really light enough to check the moth box and the surrounding area. It was 10 degrees in Portsmouth this morning with a very light northerly wind, but the day looks good to be bright and sunny throughout.

Some of the moths from the egg trays.

Again, a reasonable number of moths present this morning with a total of 68 moths of 17 species. It included an unexpected Blair’s Mocha perched on the wall opposite the moth box, though the count was dominated by Lesser Yellow Underwing, Large Yellow Underwing and Willow Beauty again. The best of the micro moths were 3 Eudonia angustea, which is a common moth for this time of year. 

It has been a good year for White-point in my moth box this year.

Moths present this morning included the following:

• 1 Blair’s Mocha
• 14 Willow Beauty
• 1 White-point
• 17 Lesser Yellow Underwing
• 8 Large Yellow Underwing
• 2 Lunar Underwing
• 6 Square-spot Rustic
• 2 Bright-line Brown-eye
• 3 Pale Mottled Willow
• 3 L-album Wainscot
• 1 Double-striped Pug
• 1 Garden Carpet
• 2 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 1 Tachystola acroxantha
• 3 Eudonia angustea
• 1 Box Tree Moth
• 2 Beautiful Plume

Yesterday, two Short-eared Owls entertained the birders around the Point Field area of Farlington Marshes and an immature Merlin was present at the same location in the morning. The long-staying Pink-footed Goose was still at Tundry Pond. There were some nice photos of this afternoon’s Wryneck at Church Norton on the Selsey Peninsula Blog, where the bird was much more obliging than our encounter, though not a great deal else was noted of that calibre. This morning, a Black Tern was seen off Selsey Bill and the long staying juvenile Roller was still at Bere Ferrers, South Devon, this morning. It is about time Hampshire got another one!

From top to bottom: Up to two Wrynecks were showing at Stansore Point, Lepe, today and also, bottom photo, one of the re-introduction scheme White-tailed Eagles graced Keyhaven Marshes. All photos by Andy Tew.