Hopefully the final word on the subject (although with moles you never know).
We caught out little visitor this morning after a night of havoc on the lawn and in the herb bed. I have to say I am very disappointed with the local feline cohort - some sniffing and watching, but no serious action.
Anyway, you will be pleased, I hope, to know that we have taken the little fellow to some farmland a mile or so out of the village as part of our Relocation Programme. I hope it flourishes there, and bothers no more gardens.
Here is a picture of it in its luxury 5 star transport, with some soil and a nice fresh juicy earthworm for the journey.
OK, so while I was writing that last entry, Mr KM was cutting the grass outside. It seemed a bit uneven and he realised it was mole hills. He duly flattened them and as he started putting the mower away he could see the earth being moved up again by a familiar little fellow just beneath the surface.
This might just about have been the initial decalration of hostilities.
I am going to have to have a hcat with some neighbours for remedies.
A baby wren fell out of the nest the other day. The parents were going mad trying to get it to fly. I'm not sure if they eventually managed it or whether one of the local cats resolved the problem in a more final way.
It's a joy having the youngsters around but so hard watching them try ot leave the nest, and sometimes not maing it.
We haven't seen any more moles either, and again this could be either good or bad news for the mole community. Who knows?
The world is uncertain, but life itself continues with individulas either surviving or feeding others.
How very morbid I am today! I think I will go and sit in the sun for a while.
So we had a second mole-sighting this week, late one evening. Either it was the same mole as last time, and it has decided to move in behind our shed rather than go to the trouble of digging a nice snug tunnel, or it was another mole with disturbingly similar behavioural trends.
If the first scenario is true then we have a very disturbed animal on the loose in our back garden. This unnatural beast no longer is attracted to its usual subterranean habitat, but prefers to live the good life above ground. Where will it end? Are our children safe from this corruption to the natural order? Will moles start demanding equal rights with shrews and voles? Is a new kind of animal emerging - some kind of above-ground omnivore capable of withstanding the light of day (would that mean moles are turning into armadillos or something?)...
The second sceanrio is even more troubling. A whole army of unnatural omnivorous mammals poised to over-run the world, crunching of woodlice in full daylight and demonstrating a casual disregard for shed permimeters.
Others have suggested that they are two moles from the same nest, but I prefer to remain on the alert. They are more likely Sappers in the War on Terror. When they reveal their true purpose I shall be ready!
While doing laundry this morning I was alerted by my significant other to the activities of some birds in the garden. They appeared to be mobbing a mole as it ran across the lawn.
Well, that was odd on a number of levels. Firstly, a mole. Furthermore, a mole in broad daylight on top of the lawn instead of underneath. Further furthermore, a mole in broad daylight on top of the lawn instead of underneath, being attacked by birds.
I have not seen a real live mole before except on the televisual apparatus, so was surprised at how large it was. Not that it was some mutant subterranena mammal intent on smashing the house with its giant paws, but it was big enough to see quite clearly, scurrying its way across the grass, desperately trying to avoid some very irritable avians.
The only sane course of action, once the chance to get a photo had been discounted, was to refer to the wildlife books we have. It seems moles breed around March/April and gestate for about 4 weeks. Young leave the nest after about 5 weeks, more or less fully grown; an average male is about 5-6 inches long (it's an old book before we had centimetres, but I would estimate that's about 12-15 cm). This would fit into timescales of early July for a young mole seeking a new home. I also learned that youngsters may be driven from the nest by adults and travel overground for significant distances in search of new territory, so I suppose that was what was going on.
The ground is currently very hard as we have not had rain for a long time and with the soil here being basically solid clay, it won't be easy digging for little paws, no matter how evolutonarily adaptive they are.
I also assume that because moles will steal eggs to eat that was why the birds took such a dim view of the creature.
Anyway, I will now be keeping an eye out for mole hills in the garden, and may have to seek advice if they suddenly appear. Which reminds me of the Jasper Carrott sketch - you can see it on YouTube or below.
Being a Sunday and being at home, I took my daughter down to the park today. Being Kirby Misperton, we don't have the normal kind of park; we have an enormous theme park. I should probably emphasise for overseas readers, this is not the usual state of affairs for small English villages. That is one of the reasons our village is special.
So here are some the animals we said "Hello" to today.
The animals like watching the humans too.
Some find time to put on their mascara first.
Some prefer to think about dinner.
But overall it's a slower pace of life here in the country.
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