THE ALDER TREES!! That is what I was trying to remember to blog about!!! Whew!!
Yesterday on my way back home from Bremerton, I took the back way along port Ludlow and Oak Bay. The road is very quiet, and covered with tons of alders and maple trees. As I was driving down this one long stretch of road, I noticed that it looked like late Fall, or winter, I couldnt figure out what was wrong, but knew something was. I drove for about another mile, and then it hit me, all of the trees were leaf-less. Totally bare. At first I thought that it was a big stand of dead trees, but as I looked harder, noticing the sky through the bare branches, I saw them. THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of Caterpiller tents. THe tops of the trees were COVERED with them. We are having an infestation of Tent caterpillers this year, they are everywhere, but they have not denuded our alder trees so far. Doing a good number on the peach trees though. You can not walk out in the back yard without getting at least one of the buggers dropped on you. (shudder) I had never seen such devastation as I saw yesterday. I guess we need a really cold winter this year to kill the suckers off. You'd think that with all of the caterpillers, there would be more birds that eat bugs, than usual, but so far they are not here. Robins are, but not much else. Just seed eaters. MAybe now that they have all hatched out, the birds will come. Eat hardy little guys, we dont want those creepy things eating all of our trees bare...
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