After my previous blog I wouldn’t like you to think that nature is all about floating blossom or – perish la pensée – that I am in any way soppy when it comes to wildlife, so let’s have another revelation of the beautiful and extraordinary.
I was on my daily commute – 50 yards through the garden to the hut where I work – when a movement caught my eye. It was as if a small portion of the ground was stirring at my feet. I stopped to investigate and realised that half-a-dozen flies had just risen from the short grass as I approached.
They had vacated the item they were feeding on: and it was indeed a thing of beauty: slim, neatly-proportioned, gracile, fluently tapered, in the shape of a crescent: revealing a truth about the place that’s not always obvious. In short, it was the most elegant turd you have ever seen.
The beauty was more in the implication than the actuality. That’s because I knew who had left it there. The creature in question is also gracile and elegant: and a stoat. I see them around here every now and then, always by chance, moving across an open space in their bounce-pouncing way, their bodies far too long for a more conventional gait. The recent influx of rabbits will have pleased them more than it does me, but it’s likely to mean more stoats.
These secret signs – footprints, droppings, altered vegetation, abandoned items of food – remind us that all around there are secret lives being lived. This was a turd to rejoice in.
You can’t beat a story about a turd. I always get excited when I see hedgehog poo in our garden.
Ah yes, stoats. I was walking along a narrow woodland path with a local nature photographer when we came upon 2 freshly killed moles. Just a dribble of blood emerging from tiny piercings. He informed me that we had probably disturbed the stoat that was taking them to his larder. Then a year later in the meadow we saw near the hedge a freshly killed adder. Again we guessed we had disturbed the “shopper”looking to fill its larder. The most memorable experience was watching a stoat chase a huge rabbit. Unfortunately for the rabbit it ran straight into a chicken wire fence. There was a piercing scream as the stoat grabbed it.
Is there anything more ferocious and indeed more valiant than a stoat
Once again ,Simon, you have seen and reported on an item of nature that we see everyday but you see it with a very different eye! By the way staring is the correct spelling for looking intently.
Regards, Anthony Bird