Welcome to 2024! As I write it is only mid-January so, I hope at the end of January you took part in the RSPB garden bird survey.
Towards the end of 2023 the weather was mild and wet with a short sharp cold spell where the thrushes ate all my holly berries, bar one or two, then it turned extremely mild with west and south west winds bringing in storms and extreme wet weather. Mostly it was in short bursts and our rivers coped well but as 2024 started storm Henk hit. It brought the river Lugg levels to the highest I have ever seen. This caused the flood plains to be further inundated with water and buildings and farmland close to the river suffered.
On the TV news a clip of a mole in the floods was shown swimming. His spade like front feet made for digging soil were excellent paddles. I first came across moles in Kenneth Grahame’s book ‘The Wind in The Willows’ and the mole comes across as an endearing fellow; a black/brown velvet coat and a solitary soul. Unfortunately, the mole is not protected as much as many of our wildlife is.  It is considered a pest by many. However it is protected by the Wildlife Act so disposing of moles has to be as humane as possible, so poisons are not used anymore but many folk still use traps. They are predated upon by buzzards, tawny owls and domestic cats and dogs. I was travelling to do some volunteering in North Herefordshire and noticed many fields covered in many mole hills. They are territorial and can cover 20 metres a day with their tunnelling but it did seem to be a lot of moles. Some horticulturists, green and lawn keepers hate the mole but many wildlife lovers like him. Yes, they can occasionally destroy roots of young plants and make of mess of the perfect. However, there are also some benefits from moles. Their main diet is earthworms but they also do eat plant destroying pests, they aerate the soil and allow natural drainage which helps reduce flooding and stagnant puddles. If I have a mole in my garden I use their beautifully tilled soil from the hills in my plant pots to grow my new seedlings in. They love the soft fine soils to grow their roots in.