Ghost trees

At this time of year, a certain type of tree in our hedgerows is stripped of almost all its leaves and covered in a silky web, giving it a ghostly appearance. The culprit is this caterpillar, of the Bird Cherry Ermine Moth (Yponomeuta evonymella) which only feeds on the leaves of the Bird Cherry tree. Amazingly, once the caterpillars have pupate and the little moths hatched out (white with black spots), the tree recovers. I have watched this happening every June for the past few years.

You can read more about it here.

It was windy today so I had to take a lot of photos before I was happy with the focus. My head was right in the branches and I kept thinking the caterpillars were in my hair....