Lower numbers, but four more Moths to my year list.

 Tuesday 9th June 2026.

Another day of two halves where there was a deluge of rain at the end of my first shift in Pembroke Road (Grrrrr!) and blazing sunshine in the afternoon shift! It was a repeat of yesterday and with a cool, blustery westerly wind; I cannot say that I really enjoyed the weather today.  The Moth Box was on again overnight, but the numbers were much lower than yesterday, but still produced a few Moths that were new for the year.

It's the last week of Spring Watch and watching it comfortably in the afternoon on the BBC iPlayer is always a bonus and it has been very good yet again. I mean, Honey Buzzard on the nest; incredible stuff. Bempton Cliffs is one of the locations this week and what an impressive place. My friends, Matt & Emma Parkes spent a good day there over the weekend; a place I have only been to once. It wasn't for the seabirds though as there was a Taiga Flycatcher there for about 5 days, but I actually ‘dipped’ on it! I left at 3am in the morning and went up to the site with a fellow birder Steve Hall, convinced we were going to see the bird (this all happened in my ‘twitcher’ days), but despite spending a long time at the site it was last seen, there was a no show!

My Moth Box:

My first Lackey moth of the year.

Four more Moths were added to my year list this morning and after seeing a couple of Lackey moth caterpillars on Sunday morning, low and behold, the adult moth turns up in my garden this morning! The other three moths were all ‘micro' moths' that included a Barred Marble (Celypha striana), Golden-brown Tubic (Crassa unitella) and the Birch Tortrix (Epinotia immundana); all annual moths to my garden.

This Barred Marble is a regular micro moth for my garden.

Numbers of Moths dropped considerably this morning compared to yesterday with just 32 moths of 19 species, but still a good variety. The only migrants were a Silver Y and a Rusty-dot Pearl, but I am sure more are to come especially when the weather gets warmer over the weekend this week. The Moths present this morning included the following:

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Garden Carpet x1	Barred Marble * x1
White Ermine x6	Golden-brown Tubic * x1
Silver Y x1	Birch Tortrix * x1
Pale Mottled Willow x4	Ruddy Streak x1
Lackey * x1	Garden Mompha x1
Heart & Dart x3	Rusty-dot Pearl x1
L-album Wainscot x1	White-shouldered House Moth x1
Vine’s Rustic x2	Garden Grass-veneerx1
Marbled Minor agg. x1
Bright-line Brown-eye x2
Double-striped Pug x1

Two more micro moths new for the year included a Golden-brown Tubic (above) and this Birch Tortrix (below); the latter moth being quite scarce to my garden.

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:

After getting a good soaking on this mornings first shift in Pembroke Road, it was far more pleasant in the afternoon.

Just 11 species seen or heard this morning during both shifts today here, but what a contrast in weather between this morning and this afternoon. I could only notch up 10 species this morning and a Black-headed Gull was heard and eventually seen this morning to boost today's total to 11! Yes, numbers were low, but watching the Blue Tits going back and forth to their nest site and Blackbirds chasing one another while working, surely cannot be all that bad! The pair of Pied Wagtails were again on the Bowling Green this morning and a male bird was seen searching the field east of the Bowling Green while I was sitting in my car this afternoon under the Holm Oaks.