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.