Bright and cold.
This is the only specimen of Black Spleenwort - Asplenium adiantum-nigrum - that I've found on the patch.
I have previously shown many leaf-miners, but the larva of the micromoth Ectoedemia subbimaculella has to be one of the most sophisticated. In the autumn, trees retract the chlorophyll from the leaves and store it for re-use next year: that's why the leaves turn brown. This leaf-miner has the ability to block the return valves for the chlorophyll, thereby creating 'green islands' in Oak leaves. They then mine the islands long after all the other miners have pupated: this allows them to have two generations in a season, even after the leaves have fallen. In addition, the larvae cut a slot in the lower epidermis of the leaf so that they can eject their frass in a tidy manner.
The green islands make this mine very easy to find on the woodland floor.
Another new micromoth leafminer for the site: Parornix betulae on Birch. This one mines the leaf and then folds it in half to give it protection to graze in safety.
Notice the Melampsoridia rust on the underside of the leaf.
Even in winter, the species counter continues to click over.
The micromoth Stigmella obliquella is distinguished by the tightly-packed black frass in the early part of the mine which terminates in a mini-blotch. Mine always on Willow.
I wonder what spiders think of all that water on their webs.
Yellow Pimpernel is having a late push.