Tea In The Park

After nursery the Flumlet was playing with friends in a wild area of the park planted with a variety of saplings, and we noticed some long, hairy caterpillars crawling about the trees enjoying a picnic of oak leaves.

The children soon lost interest and continued pulling rowan berries from the trees to throw at each other, while I took as many photos as possible before they all dropped into the long grass and disappeared. Full-length photo in the extra.

From reference to the website wildlifeinsight I discovered that this is the caterpillar of the Buff-Tip Moth, Phalera bucephala, which feeds on Oak, Sallow, Hawthorn and Blackthorn, can cause the significant defoliation of small trees, although not normally causing any permanent damage.


These were taken on my on my newly-returned TZ30; after some confusion as to the fault to be diagnosed it transpires that the zoom is badly worn (not, as first indicated, terminal) as I have 'been using it a lot'.
Henceforth, therefore, I shall resolve to use the camera only when taking a photograph. That's sure to cure the problem!