Vestal and a good selection of immigrant moths this morning.

Tuesday 10th October 2023.

My first Vestal of the year. I was hoping one would turn up this year as everyone else, it seems, was getting one in their moth box. What a cracking little moth.  

I have to be honest, all that visible migration yesterday really whetted my appetite and so I set my moth trap up again overnight in order to get up at first light. I was hoping for something unusual to fly over while checking the moths, but it wasn't to be. However, I had a good selection of moths with many immigrant moths present too, including a couple that were new for the year.

Above, my first Pearly Underwing of the year, another immigrant moth and below, a Blair's Mocha.

Again, I had to wait till well after 7am for it to be light enough to check the moth box and I was rather pleased with the contents. A Convolvulus Hawk-moth would have been nice, but a superb Vestal moth stole the show. This immigrant moth was perched on one of the egg trays along with also my first Pearly Underwing of the year. Other nice moths included a Delicate, 3 Black Rustics and a Blair’s Mocha. A good total (especially for this time of year) of 61 moths of 25 species was present this morning and kept me a little too busy!

A rather late Rosy Tabby was a surprise this morning.

The moths present this morning included the following:

• 1 Delicate
• 1 Vestal (NFY)
• 1 Pearly Underwing (NFY)
• 2 Angle Shades
• 1 Blair’s Mocha
• 7 Garden Carpet
• 3 Feathered Ranunculus
• 2 Lesser Yellow Underwing
• 4 Double-striped Pug
• 1 Willow Beauty
• 1 Pale Mottled Willow
• 2 Clancy’s Rustic
• 1 Lunar Underwing
• 1 L-album Wainscot
• 3 Black Rustic
• 2 White-shouldered House Moth
• 2 Ruddy Streak
• 13 Light Brown Apple Moth
• 3 Common Plume
• 1 Rusty-dot Pearl
• 2 Narrow-winged Grey
• 1 Rosy Tabby
• 1 London Dowd
• 1 Meal Moth
• 4 Box Tree Moth

This juvenile Sabine's Gull was found and photographed off Hill Head by Mark Francis.

There wasn't as much visible migration this morning, but there were a good number of Meadow Pipits flying over heading both south and west. There was just the one Redwing seen this morning and a flock of 10 Goldfinch also flew over along with a few ‘alba’ Wagtails. It was rather quiet on my first shift too at Pembroke Road, though a Grey Heron flew over heading west and a small flock of three Pied Wagtails were on the Bowling Green.

Above and below, this White-tailed Eagle also was seen over Hill Head. Photos by Mark Francis.

In Hampshire today, Hill Head birder (and a fellow ‘Lazee’) Mark Francis found a juvenile Sabine’s Gull flying past Hill Head and to add to that, one of the Isle of Wight White-tailed Eagles also flew over (see photos). Another Ring Ouzel was seen today on Portsdown Hill and also at Leaden Hall in the New Forest and also at Fishlake Meadows.   

Bearded Tits have been showing well in front of the Viewing Platform on Farlington Marshes, with up to 50 birds being present over the past few days. Photo by Pete Appleton.