Following a dreary, colourless winter, trees breaking into vivid bright greens are always a most welcome sight.

One of the first to unfurl is the horse chestnut, its very young leaves resembling the chubby fingers of a child’s hand. I call the tree a conkering hero for despite the ravages of leaf miner moth over the past decade or so, horse chestnuts seem to shrug off its effects and burst into leaf regardless.

Of all our trees, The mighty oak, pictured, is the most important of all for wildlife because, being one of the first trees to colonise Britain after the last ice age, wildlife has had a long period to adapt and benefit from its properties. Indeed, it supports a wider range of birds, plants, fungi, lichens and especially insects then any other European species.

More than 200 species of moth larvae feed on the leaves but only one butterfly, namely the purple hairstreak. If we stand beneath a woodland oak on a bright windless day in May, after the leaves have unfurled, we may hear what sounds lake a gentle patter of rain falling onto the leaf litter below. But, those ‘raindrops’ are in fact the droppings of millions of tiny moth larvae feeding above.

When disturbed, caterpillars lower themselves to the ground on gossamer threads to be brushed aside from our faces as we stroll through the woods.

Blue and great tits time the hatching of their broods to coincide with the abundance of larvae. Then later As the caterpillars pupate and the moths emerge, we can see piles of ting pale green wings on the ground, snipped off by the birds before they feed the remainder of the moths to their chicks.