Tree holes and small bones

The hole on the front page was in this tree.

You might look at this tree and think, "Poor old thing. Put it out of its misery." It has lost some branches and seems to be struggling a bit. But a tree is not like a person. For a start, check out all the new growth! Tell me a seventy-year-old who can manage that? Plus, the tree is home to a host of creatures. Unlike most seventy-year-olds. Who have probably killed their gut microflora with ongoing antibiotics.

This next image shows part of a much younger tree who looks to be having a tough life.

This oak has the malformed look of a tree much much older.

And yet, as well as the nooks and crannies where it has lost branches or suffered injuries, it was also the chosen home of, I think, a corvid.

And a perch for an owl - I think. Underneath I found a pellet. Which I took home to inspect.

Most intriguing was the skull.

But there were other finds... until I felt a bit queasy and had to stop.

I tried to show the scale of things in rather crappy videos.

I kept the bones, but, as I say, the whole thing made me feel a bit sick.