Dear Tweeters,

The tent caterpillar thread reminded me of an experience I had while still living in my native New York. During one of my last years there, 1980 or 1981 I think, we suffered a tremendous plague of gypsy moth caterpillars. They had been pests in New York for as long as I could remember, but that year they denuded thousands of acres of forests in the lower Hudson Valley. The woods looked like November instead of July that summer. It was positively eery. One could actually hear the little creatures munching their way through the remaining leaves.

The wonderful thing about that year was the dramatic increase in both Yellow-billed and Black-billed Cuckoos. They were everywhere! Maybe we might get lucky if the tent caterpillars go on the rampage out here...

Good birding!



Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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