A 'Lifer' moth & a Firecrest in Pembroke Road.

Thursday 18th September 2025.

My first ever SOMBRE BROCADE moth.

Not only was it an awesome morning for Moths, despite the drizzly weather, but also a very good haul of birds seen in Pembroke Road this morning on my first shift there in Old Portsmouth. A cracking SOMBRE BROCADE moth was re-identified for me among a host of excellent moths and a few nice surprises were among the birds seen this morning. A Grey Wagtail was heard again calling somewhere over the rooftops while I was taking the dogs for their early morning walk and a Chiffchaff was calling in my neighbours garden while I was checking the Moths. Though it was drizzly, it was very mild with temperatures around 18 degrees with a light south-westerly wind.

My Moth Box:

Above, my first Blair's Mocha for the month and below, one of two Golden Twin-spot moths.

I was blessed with my first ever SOMBRE BROCADE moth this morning, which was perched high up under the eaves of my kitchen roof and I had to grab a box to pot the moth. At first, the Obsidentify App was 95% sure it was a Beautiful Brocade, but when I put a few photos on Hants Moths website as I was a bit doubtful, Ben Dale came back to me and said he was happy it was a SOMBRE BROCADE. Happy days indeed.

One of FOUR Clancy's Rustic's this morning.

There was also an excellent supporting cast of Moths present that included 2 Golden Twin-spots, FOUR Clancy’s Rustics (a record here for my garden), Blair’s Mocha and a Plumed Fan-foot! 45 moths of 18 species was nothing to be unhappy with for this time of year here in Southsea. 

The Plumed Fan-foot moth.

The Moths recorded this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
SOMBRE BROCADE x1	Light Brown Apple Moth x3
Willow Beauty x2	Rusty-dot Pearl x`
Blair’s Mocha x1	Chevron Grass-moth x1
Large Yellow Underwing x7	Common Plume x2
Lesser Yellow Underwing x6	Dark Moss-moth x1
L-album Wainscot x7	Ruddy Streak x1
Square-spot Rustic x1	Tree-mallow Tortrix x1
Clancy’s Rustic c4
Golden Twin-spot x2
Pale Mottled Willow x
Plumed Fan-foot x1

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:

The Holm Oak where the Firecrest was calling.

Within the first five minutes of starting work in Pembroke Road this morning, I had already notched up 9 species that included a calling Firecrest in the nearby Holm Oak trees and a Grey Heron flying low overhead and eventually headed off westbound. The weather was still drizzly, but hardly any wind this time as I was picking out some good sightings for this area.

Not the sharpest of images from my mobile phone camera, but this Grey Heron lingered long enough for a record shot of it passing over.

A Cormorant flew high overhead and headed east and just as I was leaving, a pair of Swallows flew low over the road and headed off south. It isn't easy picking out the calling birds due to the consistent traffic going past, but occasionally there is a lull in the traffic and I can pick out birds calling in the distance. Not a bad start in the morning with 15 species in total seen on my first shift here. What will the second shift add to this total?

Birds seen or heard this morning included the following:

• Firecrest
• Great Tit
• Cormorant
• Grey Heron
• Swallow
• Carrion Crow
• Magpie
• Herring Gull
• Wood Pigeon
• Feral Pigeon
• Pied Wagtail
• House Sparrow
• Robin
• Wren
• Starling