One of those natural, wonderful phenomena....

During our walk in Charlecote Park last week we came across this tree that looked like it was completely covered with cobwebs.

And then another.

And another. There was a whole row of them, all in all around eight.

So we had a closer look. It looked like something someone had prepared for Halloween, 

except these did not look like normal cobwebs

and then we noticed these worm-like creatures, moving about all over

They were everywhere

clustered around ... what? the spiders who had woven the web? Had they taken over and killed the spiders? We were totally mystified. Had never seen anything like it.

On closer inspection, this is what we saw. Alive and climbing... writhing...

As we were leaving we asked one of the people at the entrance who said he had not seen anything like what we described, the rangers had not reported anything, and no-one else had alerted them to this. After I showed him the photographs I had taken he said he had seen something on the BBC about an invasive form of caterpillar that has been seen in the UK recently. He said he would ask the rangers to investigate.

So, I did some research when we got home.

'Hungry caterpillars have covered a 30m expanse of trees in a huge ghostly-looking web', read the headline.

Caterpillar expert Andy Banthorpe said that the giant web is the larval feeding web of a small moth called the spindle ermine. They do it to protect themselves from predatory birds while they are feeding. The vast webbing could indicate a caterpillar population explosion after last year's warm summer, but it, and the caterpillars, were harmless.

'It looks quite ghostly, like some superb, natural Halloween display a few months too early', he said. 'It's one of these natural, wonderful phenomenon that you see occasionally', he added.