Feathered Ranunculus moth added to year list.

Monday 21^st September 2026.

A stunning sunrise over Highland Road Cemetery when I walked the dogs early this morning.

Its warming up again! Today was not only bright and sunny with cloudless sky throughout the day, but it was very warm this afternoon as I could actually feel the sweat running down my back! Yes, it was quite cool first thing this morning as I checked the Moth Box, but there was not a puff of wind blowing as flock after flock of Meadow Pipits flew over.

My Moth Box:

My first Feathered Ranunculus moth for the year.

Annoyingly, despite putting up an array of obstacles to stop the local Fox rummaging around my Moth Box, I could hear the damn animal around 4am again and so I had to get up and scare it off before it done any damage to my Box. It wasn’t light till around 6.30am and thankfully, a lot of Moths were still present around the Moth Box.

My 3rd Delicate moth for this year.

A total of 45 moths of 16 species were recorded this morning and that included my first Feathered Ranunculus moth of the year. A typical Autumn species to my garden, I normally get good numbers of this species throughout the season and hopefully, they are on their way here. 6 Clancy’s Rustics was also exceptional, which I think is the highest count of this species I have had this year so far.

One of five Clancy's Rustics in and around the Box today.

A Delicate moth was another excellent Moth for my garden; a true immigrant Moth and I think the 3^rd one for the year. A Plumed Fan-foot was just inside my kitchen and the reason it spent all day in my house was that it was stuck to some spider web of which I managed to get off and release the Moth back into the garden. A Least Carpet was perched on my neighbour’s wall and the pick of the micros was a Mint Moth.

 

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Least Carpet x1	Light Brown Apple Moth x9
Small Dusty Wave x1	Rusty-dot Pearl x3
Clancy’s Rustic x6	Beautiful Plume x1
Delicate x1	Mint Moth x1
Feathered Ranunculus * x1	Common Plume x1
Lesser Yellow Underwing x6
Large Yellow Underwing x3
L-album Wainscot x4
Square-spot Rustic x3
Double-striped Pug x1
Plumed Fan-foot x1

 

This Twin-spot Centurian; a species of Soldier Fly, that was in my Moth Box.

Also, within the Moth Box, there was a species of Soldier Fly, a Twin-spot Centurian (Sargus bipunctatus) and also a Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus). Up to two Chiffchaffs were in the gardens near mine and one of which was seen on top of the tall tree at the back of my garden before flying off south. Overhead, a steady stream of Meadow Pipits flew over involving at least 50+ birds. Singles of both Grey and Yellow Wagtail were also heard flying over.

 

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:

Wall to wall sunshine throughout the day here in Old Portsmouth.

A good count of 13 species was recorded today at Pembroke Road in the bright sunshine. A Chiffchaff was first heard and then seen flying from the Holm Oaks to the Sycamore trees to the west and another was heard by the Bowling Green a little later. Again, there was a trickle of Meadow Pipits flying over and a Grey Wagtail was also heard overhead.

This afternoon, on my second shift, though no new bird species were added to todays total, a Clouded Yellow butterfly flew west past me; summing up what a superb year it has been for this migratory species. The only other insects seen today was a Buff-tailed Bumblebee and Syrphus species of Hoverfly. The Hibiscus Bushes are now full of Ants and Blackfly and now, we have Garden Spiders all around the Bushes.