Of birds and bees

                   The woodsman's work is never done ! No sooner have the chainsaws been hung up for the summer than dry tracks make it a good time to start moving timber around. The ground in Crow Wood gets very wet in the winter months and our old rear-wheel drive truck gets stuck very easily so the dry summer months are made for getting firewood to where it is most accessible. We had a lot of chestnut coppiced in January and today I made start on moving it to beside the main track where it will stay for a couple of years drying out before being sold. It is not very efficient practice to move it like this from place to place but the best solution for our small wood as using 4WDs in the winter would just cut the terrain up very badly. Tackling a couple of loads each time I am over there makes it seem an easier task..... I managed three this afternoon before the rain swept in.

                       I came across some new digging on my walk around earlier in the afternoon, just behind our shed in a low sandy bank there. I thought at first it was a new rabbit burrow but then spotted a number of dead bumble bees in the spoil heap and others in the hole itself, some frantically buzzing about. It is most likely the work of a badger that has got a sniff of the bee's nest and decided to dig it out. This is the first time I have seen this in our wood or anywhere come to think about it.

the excavation itself

dead and injured Bumble Bees

The hole made for quite a bit of digging but what badgers are designed for !