I’ve been checking Birch trees since their green leaves first started to unfold, prompted by a post I’d seen by Rob Edmunds (@leafminerman on Twitter) of the British Leafminers website to check for the small holes created by the feeding of the tiny Common case-bearer moth, Coleophora serratella. Finally, last Tuesday, I found some on a tree in Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park.

And, luckily, the little case-bearing larva was still in situ, initially checking out some silky seedhead fibres that had lodged on the end of its leaf, then retreating to the patch that marked where it had been feeding and resumed munching. You can read more about this beauty on the British Leafminers website and see the adult moth on the UK Moths website.