Black Rustic onboard my year list.

Sunday 11^th October 2026.

From left to right, Black Rustic, Golden Twin-spot and a Feathered Ranunculus moths. Just some of the species that were in my garden this morning.

It was overcast first thing this morning as I made my way out into the garden this morning at 7.15am. Annoyingly, I was up at 4am due to a blocked nose yet again and so went downstairs and finished off my blog from yesterday’s adventures. I was somewhat surprised on how many leaves were blowing about in my garden after I had swept the garden the day before and so I put that on my list of chores to do today.

As well as a good variety of Moths present this morning there was a lot of visible migration going on overhead and I should of hung around in the garden for considerably longer as everytime I went to check one of the egg trays, I could hear something else flying over!

My Moth Box:

My first Black Rustic of the year at last!

I finally got my first Black Rustic of the year; a species that is annual in my garden around this time of year and one of my favourite Moths. An excellent total of 67 moths of 18 speceis this morning that included plenty of migrants: Turnip Moth, 2 Golden Twin-spots, Pearly Underwing, Vestal, 11 Rusty-dot Pearls (Udea ferrugalis) and a Diamond-back Moth (Plutella xylostella).

Above, a Pearly Underwing and below, a Diamond-back Moth.

Both Shuttle-shaped Dart and Garden Carpet were late for this time of year as was a Common Masoner (Blastobasis adustella). 37% of the moths present were Light Brown Apple Moths and there were probably more in the garden lurking around in the vegetation. The moths recorded this morning were as follows:

 

MACRO MOTHS	MICRO MOTHS
Feathered Ranunculus x11	Rusty-dot Pearl x11
Lunar Underwing x2	Light Brown Apple Moth x25
Shuttle-shaped Dart x1	Beautiful Plume x1
Blair’s Mocha x1	Common Plume x1
Turnip Moth x1	Diamond-back Moth x1
Black Rustic * x1	Common Masoner x1
Golden Twin-spot x2
Garden Carpet x1
Double-striped Pug x4
Lesser Yellow Underwing x1
Pearly Underwing x1
Vestal

 

As mentioned before, there was a lot of visible migration going on overhead and that included my first Reed Bunting flying westbound high over their rooftops. There were plenty of finches going over and that included a flock of 12 Linnets and a singleton; 8 Chaffinches, several Goldfinches, a single Greenfinch and a Siskin.

Also going over included a Pied Wagtail, several Meadow Pipits and a small flock of Starlings and also a singleton that was giving off its alarm call! Sadly, no sign of any raptor passing by.

 

This week at Cowplain Marsh:

The feeders at Cowplain Marsh.

I checked out the Cowplain Marsh Logbook while in Andy Fisher’s house yesterday and as there is a lot of visible migration going on, I could see the likes of Meadow Pipits going over along with Grey and Pied Wagtails. Andy, though he has poorer hearing than Geoff, uses the Merlin App to pick up birds going over (I personally do not rate it at all as it makes far too many mistakes for my liking). The following sightings were recorded this week at Cowplain Marsh:

Monday 5th, using the Merlin App, a Firecrest was picked up and a Red Kite flew high over the garden.

Tuesday 6th, Geoff had up to 3 Grey Wagtails flying over as well as 6 ‘alba’ Wagtails along with a Rook.

Wednesday 7th, singles of both Pied and Grey Wagtail went over and a flock of 4 House Martins also flew south. Geoff had a Goldcrest in the garden while all the usual birds were using the feeders including the Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Thursday 8th, the Great Spotted Woodpecker was back on the feeders along with a Coal Tit and a Nuthatch. Up to 15 Goldfinches were feeding on the Niger seed and within the garden, a Chiffchaff was flitting about the fruit trees. Four single Meadow Pipits flew over and a Cormorant flew north-east high over the garden.

Friday 9^th produced a couple of Long-tailed Tits on the feeders along with the Great Spotted Woodpecker. The Nuthatch dropped in too and a Dunnock was singing in the garden.

Sunday 11th had both Pied and Grey Wagtails over Cowplain Marsh and also a small flock of 3 Skylark flew over. Geoff heard a Green Woodpecker somewhere near the garden (probably the same bird I heard here last Saturday) which was the 46th species to be seen or heard at Cowplain Marsh this month. A Chiffchaff was also seen here today.