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Originally Posted by Bub-les  good news for the blue-tits etc in the area though. 
Barbara |
At present flock of blue tits could raise their young on the caterpillars from just one infested tree - sadly there just aren't the populations of small insectivorous birds to deal with the infestation - partly because the park is an island in an urban sea and partly due to the excessive numbers of grey squirrels and corvids within the park. So there may well be wholesale defoliation this summer - it's a long way to Lammas. Already some trees are pretty much bare and swathed in silk where the beasties have dropped off after finishing off one leaf and climbed back up again to find the next ... at night the sound of insect jaws chomping away is loud, like radio static. It reminds me of one of Selma Lagerof's
Nils stories...