A Mole and a Mole Sculpture

A feverishly digging mole, scraping at the damp silt and shifting stones and pebbles in its path.  I watched it for many moments, but it heard me and vanished down a hole in the bank.  It moved surprisingly quickly.

The little beck that runs down past my workshop has completely dried up.   I’ve seen it as a trickle in previous dry spells, but it is the first time it has been completely dry.  I’m being careful with water and re-cycling where possible.  There’s an area of grass which I’ve watered from the geese buckets and every morning it is criss-crossed with mole tunnels.  The lushness of this small area has obviously drawn them in.

I’m thinking about those hugely powerful front limbs, clawing, delving and tunneling whilst I’m carving a mole sculpture.  Also of its super-sensitive pink snout.  The soapstone I’m working gorgeously represents the mole’s colouring and earthy, underground life.

When I saw the mole disappear into the hole, I just got a glimpse of its scurrying bottom and tail, which was longer than I thought and held upright.  This is something moles do when running in their burrows, their tails are held up, to act as a guide along the tunnel walls, and especially useful when they’re going backwards!

Have you noticed any unusual or different wildlife behaviour during this hot dry summer?

Here’s the mole sculpture finished.