Tuesday 28 January 2014

The fields are now full of mole hills as the moles set off in search of mates. I wonder how they cope with the wet weather, can they drain their own runs. I saw one on the surface of the waterlogged field behind the house, sort of frantically swim-splashing uphill and disappearing into the ground. We are getting large flocks of starlings feeding up here, sometimes the gurgling sound of them all calling makes me think a pipe has burst somewhere. Driving down the lane to put the bins out I saw a tailess squirrel, it ran easily up a tree to sit and watch us in a fork of the trunk. The squirrels in the garden use their tails to signal constantly to each other, so basically its now mute. The snowdrops are out in the garden and the wild primroses have buds, though I've noticed the pheasants have taken a fancy to pecking them as they do all the new growth put out by the perennials.