This possibly doesn't deserve its own thread but we have been staying in Devon this past week. I have noticed alot of Sycamores with quite severe dieback. It seems to be mainly affecting younger Sycamores with about half the shoots showing brown leaves(which suggests that it kicks in relatively late in the season). It's very noticeable and widespread but only in South West England(I didn't notice it in South Wales). I couldn't see anything that really described it online. Does anyone else know anything about it?

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Usually its because Grey Squirrels have ring barked them.

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That would be my guess too. Plus I think deer are an increasing problem and certainly eat/tear at bark.

Bigger sycamores seem to have had a good summer with a lot less black spot than usual. Stress levels for trees will have been lower than in recent years with not so much heat and enough moisture.

I think that's the case here, Dev. The one in the churchyard is massive now and looking magnificent. Addition: Saw a muntjac here this morning... 👍

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To be honest, I'm relieved that it's probably deer or grey squirrels. We've got enough tree diseases already without another one coming along. Whether it's squirrels or deer, Devon does seem to have an issue with them. I hadn't noticed this issue anywhere else in England in recent years, unless anyone else has seen this elsewhere?

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Interesting reading the comments on here.
I noticed locally that sycamores were dropping leaves from end of July which was a bit unusual, we don't have either squirrels or deer.
A young English Lime tree in my garden has already lost about 80% of it's leaves whilst the more mature one has also been shedding since the beginning of August.

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Not sure what's happening near you StoneCroze but hopefully it's just a one off seasonal thing.
As regards the Sycamores, I have noticed similar damage to Sycamores in South Wales, though not quite as widespread as in Devon. If it's caused by animals, I suspect that it's grey squirrels as I would have thought that South West Wales wouldn't be all that deer friendly. I'm pretty sure that this hasn't been as bad before so I'm curious as to whether anyone else has noticed it.

Edit: Found this article 

https://treetalk.substack.com/p/sycamore-summer-symptoms 

Seems to be quite widespread and caused by the grey squirrel. I hope this year is a blip.

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