Two moth boxes to check out.

Saturday 24th September 2022.

My first Black Rustic of the year showed well in one of the outside egg trays. 

And now it's the weekend and today, I had the pleasure of checking out two moth boxes this morning. Another cold or should I say fresh start to the day, but it wasnt till around 6.45am that it was really light enough to check the moths. At least it wasn't raining and soon I was getting stuck into the egg trays within the moth box. Among the moths, was my first Black Rustic of the Autumn, one of my favourite moths along with another Pearly Underwing trying its hardest to blend in with the Large Yellow Underwing. A total of 95 moths of 19 species was easily my highest count  this week despite cold temperatures overnight. 

Above, this Pearly Underwing was my first this week. Below, a Lesser Yellow Underwing with the Black Rustic.

The moths present this morning included the following: 

• 11 Willow Beauty
• 14 Lesser Yellow Underwing
• 10 Large Yellow Underwing
• 6 Lunar Underwing
• 4 Pale Mottled Willow
• 12 Double-striped Pug
• 10 Square-spot Rustic
• 1 Black Rustic (NFY)
• 4 L-album Wainscot
• 1 Pearly Underwing
• 1 Turnip Moth 
• 1 Feathered Ranunculus
• 1 Angle Shades
• 1 Setaceous Hebrew Character
• 1 Garden Carpet
• 2 Box Tree Moth   
• 3 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 1 Tachystola acroxantha
• 1 Acleris notona / ferrugana  

There was a trickle of Meadow Pipits over the house this morning, the majority flying eastbound and I was pretty sure I heard a Tree Pipit first thing this morning, but the Pipit I saw flying on its own heading north did not make a call. Was this the bird? A Chiffchaff was calling somewhere in the gardens behind my house and all the time I was checking the moths, a Robin was in full song on top of my neighbours tree at the back of the garden.

Most of the moths that were in the egg trays by Andy's moth box.

I got to Andy’s house around 7.45am and while he made me a coffee, I got about checking the moths his moth box had attracted overnight. In fact, he had another reasonable haul of moths. A total of 22 moths of 11 species were recorded in total, which included 3 Lunar Underwing and an unexpected Shuttle-shaped Dart.

The moths present in his garden included the following:

• 4 Garden Carpet
• 1 L-album Wainscot
• 1 Lesser Yellow Underwing
• 1 Large Yellow Underwing
• 2 L-album Wainscot
• 1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
• 3 Lunar Underwing
• 6 Square-spot Rustic
• 1 Pale Mottled Willow
• 1 Double-striped Pug
• 1 Eudonia angustea

At ‘Cowplain Marsh’ (Andy’s back garden), while checking the moths, there was a lot of activity going on overhead that included a good sized flock of 20+ House Martins flying over. A pair of Grey Wagtails also flew over at two small groups of 3 Meadow Pipits flew north. A Chiffchaff was heard calling in a nearby garden and then ended up at the back of the garden, but not seen. We were at a loss on where to actually go birding today and although a lot of the ‘Lazee Birders’ made their way down to Lepe Country  Park for the showy Wryneck; on thinking about all the overhead birds going through, I decided to go to Old Winchester Hill.