Over
the snowpack that encircles the big sugar maple which dominates just beyond the
bird feeders in back, a small vole came scurrying just so. It skirted the base
of the tree, using the bare grass on the leeward side as cover, pausing just
enough so that for a split second it blended in. Then, for reasons I can only
guess it darted around the tree and disappeared from view.
We tend
to see the voles more often this time of year, as warming temperatures and more
insistent sunshine work on the snowpack. As it recedes, small tunnels begin to
appear, which reveal a complex network of passages across the side yard.
Actually, it is the snow above the tunnels that melts, and with the tunnel
floors having been compressed by frequent use, the effect is that slight lines
of visible ground become revealed when the temperatures rise.
It is
tempting to think that activity ceases in the ground and below, as creatures
either perish upon the first frost or resort to hibernation or torpor, shut
away in some ground nest or den. Where these highways of tunnels lead, I can
only guess, but I can report that there is a general confluence around the cast
off seed that peppers the snowpack around the feeders. So we have both
trespassers above ground coming to get their fill with gray and red squirrels,
rabbits, and the infrequent raccoon. And, we are invaded in secret from below.
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