What a difference a day makes. Tonight, I went with James McGill and Mark Yeates to West Coker Fen. We had last looked here for Blair's Wainscot about nine years ago in mid October!! Tonight, the Fen looked different, smaller somehow, but it had a good growth of what looked like Lesser Pond Sedge. We weren't too sure about the management practice of allowing a small herd of bullocks to plough through it leaving presents everywhere but what do we know? Anyway, we found a patch that didn't look too trampled and settled down to wait. James amused himself by finding the second Somerset site for Stigmella ulmariae and discovering one of the two species of Coleophora that inhabits Meadowsweet. I, on the other hand plumped for discovering a little green thing on an Alder leaf that would look at home in an Alien movie - all offers of an identification gratefully received. Then it started to rain and as dusk approached it got heavier. Needless to say, it is not comfortable being stuck in the middle of waist high sedges in the rain and as you have probably guessed by now, Somerset still awaits the discovery of its colony of Blair's Wainscot. As we left the Fen I thought I heard Mark make some comment about hardcore mothing, but it may have just been my soaking wet trousers flapping against my calves.

Coleophora species

Alder feeding alien - all id offers gratefully accepted