Off on a trot and given a warning en route.
These beetles can deliver a nasty bite.
Further along, I went to look at an oak in a field. Once, years back, I had seen a huge flock of corvids around this oak - they turned the field black. They were eating grubs and worms from the ploughed land. I'd always rather liked this landmark tree.
This time, I noticed the track around it and saw a badger latrine nearby. Kneeling by the trunk, I saw badger hairs caught in the bark. This tree was their landmark too!
I trotted off to look at the local sett - no corpses on this occasion - and then, what do you know it? I found myself trespassing again. Hidden in the trees on the edge of a field I have often crossed, an old barn.
I love these deserted buildings.
Not totally deserted - at some point someone had put up and owl box.
If the owls don't use the box, they definitely use the barn.
And so do some other nest-builders.
I love the thought that the man-made world can crumble back into nature. That the artefacts of colonisation can be, as it were, recolonised.
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