The Old Vic- migrants but no cigar

It's not really been bird weather (it's been moth weather), so pretty quiet on the bird front, highlights have included good numbers of Redwing, a few Fieldfares, a Peregrine, the occasional Redpoll, Siskin, Mipit and Skylark going over but not much else. Peregrine and Redpoll were new for years so on 81 species for the year HERE

There have been five first for Britain moths in the last month amongst the invasion of commoner migrants particularly in the last two weeks. From what I understand this is one of the best migrant moth autumns ever. I have been pulling every stop I can to try and catch something good here in the garden in Bucks but despite my best efforts (been searching around during the night with a torch too) I have basically failed to find anything decent here over about 10 nights of trapping in the peak period (thank goodness I went to Portland last week!). Elsewhere in Bucks and surrounding counties it has been a bit disappointing too but there has been a couple of Crimson Speckled, a Blair's Mocha,  Yellow- underwing Pearl and a few Scarce Bordered Straws. More HERE.  I would have been happy with a Scarce Bordered Straw. 

Seems like we did much better for migrants round here in other migrant influxes this year when there was high pressure situations and presumably the moths were being dispersed more widely, however things are still reaching inland elsewhere so I won't give up yet- so many moths have been blown into the country during this influx so they might be wandering around for a while yet. Fingers crossed. 

Only things to report is the Delicate (from the first stormy night a while ago), a Vestal recently, up to 17 Rush Veneer in one night, a single Diamond-back moth, a few Rusty-dot Pearls and a bunch of possible migrants including a good showing of Turnips, White Points and the odd Box Tree Moth. Also been a few late appearances of certain species and a few new for years that are appearing now such as Sprawler, Mottled Umber and December moth. The garden year moth list is now on 490 so still slowly creeping towards the 500 in a year target. 

Been getting up to 25 species a night of 60 or so moths which by the sounds of it is impressive for this time of year in Bucks, so relatively speaking it probably has actually been good here.   

Vestal - the 7th record this year between 27th July and 29th October 

A Diamond-back- not many of them recently but this is the 26th record this year between 20th May and 29th October (the 29th October was a barmy 15 C and was the peak night when I had the 17 Rush Veneer, Vestal, Diamond-back and Rusty-dot Pearl). The most numerous migrant this year has been Rush Veneer with 48 records between 19th May and last night. Perhaps surprisingly there have only been 7 records of Rusty-dot Pearl between 10th July and 29th October.

Good numbers of Turnips which could be migrants too- there were certainly large numbers in the Portland traps last weekend

Box Tree Moth- a few of these recently which I've been feeding to the chickens. Possibly a migrant too.

Sprawler- a new for year

Cypress Carpet (below) and I wasn't sure about the above one which might be a well marked Cypress or something like a Grey Pine Carpet. 

Winter Grounding I presume 

I put this down as a very unseasonal Uncertain/Rustic as opposed to a Vine's Rustic which have been around recently too

Any day with a Merveille du Jour is a good day- had 9 records this year, all in October

This could be something interesting, I don't recognise it, the closest I've got so far is Acleris logiana or A.kochiella or maybe a more common Acleris variant. Awaiting feed back from the CMR Team. Update 281122- it has been confirmed as a female Grey Birch Button Acleris logiana -thanks very much to Peter Hall for carrying out the dissection