I know that this is a deviation from the usual subject for a post on this blog site, but it is of significance to the ecology of the area. There are many trees showing these symptoms on site on the north, south, west and even in the east among the trees planted only a couple of years ago for the Queen's Jubilee. I have emailed these photos to Woodland Trust who have acknowledged the communication and are discussing the matter.
On a happier note, the birds are in fine song on Ffos Las so here are some pictures that I'm quite pleased with of a linnet, juvenile stonechat and a skylark:
And finally at long last, a moth!! This was on my house wall this morning. I'm fairly sure that it is a type of carpet moth, but which one? Can anyone help please?
I've seen this type of damage recently too, and wondered if it might be the work of the Ash Bud moth (Prays fraxinella). Not sure, and in the last photo the damage looks a bit too extensive for that.
ReplyDeleteMoth is a Devon Carpet.
The photos I used for the damage to the ash trees maybe didn't do justice to the extent of the damage in some trees as I was zooming in on the brown wilted leaves and the brown stains on the bark. Many of the trees showing symptoms have no foliage for the top third of the height of the tree and in all the trees I've tried so far and where I can reach show brown not green when a thumb nail is used to scrape the bark where there is no foliage, so it isn't that the tree is late in coming into leaf. The damage is certainly extensive and in all areas of the site.
DeleteThanks for the info re moth. Another one to add to my list.