Eastern Bordered Straw in Brechfa

This morning Ian emailed to say he had seen Carmarthenshire’s first Eastern Bordered Straw in Llanelli yesterday afternoon but that it had flown off while he was getting his camera. This was one of those immensely frustrating ‘ones that got away’, as the rule is that we need a photo/specimen of a County First. He replied in full acceptance, joking that maybe Joe Blogs would catch one today to confirm it on the VC44 list.

Well Joe Bloggs (me) did - I noticed a lot of Silver Y nectaring on Geranium in our garden in Brechfa and upon investigation spotted an Eastern Bordered Straw among them. It was immediately obvious, with a fainter black hindwing bar and fainter black forewing mark than Bordered Straw. There is a huge influx of this species in Britain at the moment, so it’s great to add it to the County list. Ian’s can be retrospectively accepted as the first and mine is the second.