First Lunar Underwing for the year.

Wednesday 16^th September 2026.

A clear blue cloudless sky started the morning off and thoughts of a near empty Moth Box was on my mind, especially since the Fox was back at 4.30am this morning chasing the Moths by my Moth Box! It not only knocked over some of my outside egg trays but took a big crap right by the Box itself! Fume!

On a positive note, though not as many as yesterday, there was still a respectable number of Moths present and one that was new for the year.

Pembroke Road was active again with plenty of bird life around that included some notable birds.

 

My Moth Box:

My first Lunar Underwing moth for the year.

Among the 62 moths of 19 species, my first Lunar Underwing was found inside one of the egg trays within the Box and hopefully, the start of many more. This might signal the first Feathered Ranunculus to be not too far behind?

Above, a Least Carpet and below, the underside of the Yellow-barred Brindle moth.

Yesterday’s Mullein Wave was still present near the Box and other notable Moths this morning included a Least Carpet that was sat on the outside of the Box, 3 Golden Twin-spots, 2 Blair’s Mocha and 2 Clancy’s Rustics. Yesterday’s Yellow-barred Brindle was also present though this time sat on one of the kitchen windows.

Above, a Golden Twin-spot and a Blair's Mocha sharing the same egg tray. 

The most numerous species were the Lesser Yellow Underwings with 11 present today. Micro moths were scarce this morning with only Light Brown Apple Moths making up the numbers and surprisingly, no Olive-tree Pearls for the second day running.

 

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Lunar Underwing * x1	Light Brown Apple Moth x9
Mullein Wave x1	Common Plume x1
Buff Ermine x1	Rusty-dot Pearl x3
Large Yellow Underwing x5
Lesser Yellow Underwing x11
Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing x1
Square-spot Rustic x2
Pale Mottled Willow x1
Least Carpet x1
Blair’s Mocha x2
Golden Twin-spot x3
Yellow-barred Brindle x1
Willow Beauty x4
Double-striped Pug x7
L-album Wainscot x6
Clancy’s Rustic x2

 

Other news:

While checking the Moth Box, there was a bit of ‘Vis Mig’ going on overhead with singles of both Tree Pipit and Yellow Wagtail flying over but near impossible to pick them up in the clear blue sky. Also, two individual Meadow Pipits went over. In the garden itself, a Robin was heard ‘ticking’ in the gardens nearby and a Great Tit was up in the tall tree at the back of the garden.

Pembroke Road, Old Portsmouth:

Up to 13 bird species were recorded on my first shift in Pembroke Road this morning. This included a very vocal Chiffchaff that was seen a couple of times this morning. A small flock of 3 Meadow Pipits flew south over Governors Green and a single bird about 30 minutes later. The pair of Jays were back and put on a good show in front of me high up in the nearby trees and a total of 7 Magpies were counted flying over Governors Green and landing in trees within Penny Lane.