Fall is coming on

Time to do a bit of clean-up. Iain enlisted Roger’s and Myles’ help to take a large branch off the old birch, which seems to be dying by inches
This tree has been around since I was a kid. My Dad put a chain on the two trunks to keep them from separating, and that chain is now grown fully into the trees.

Thank goodness for a long ladder!

We are only taking off the fully-dead branch which leans toward the cottage. I’m hoping the rest of the tree comes back next year, but the tree has been getting sparser for the last 10 years, and may be approaching its end.
We have a small tree I haven’t identified as yet growing behind the cottage. I think it is some member of the apple family, but that’s about all I can get from it as yet.
We found two interesting caterpillars feeding on this tree. This one is, I think, a Clymene Moth.

And this one is definitely a Red-Humped Caterpillar Moth larva.