There is an awful lot of earth being brought to the surface this week - and I don't just mean the work of the moles - although they have been really busy over the past 10 days or so - there are lot of new molehills in fields all round, breaking through the short green shoots of wheat and grass alike - as a child I was always told that they each led to one big molehill, a "fortress" where the female gave birth to her young and looked after them, mostly from predatory males who would eat them - I had to smile when I came past a home-made football pitch with those little mini-goalposts and a pattern of molehills all over the grass - I guess dad/groundsman will have to do a fair bit of spadework to cope with them.

No, the earthworks I was referring to were in Farmer Ted's big field. For the past few days a big digger has been scooping out a "ditch" around the outskirts of the field, the last of the soil being taken away this morning.

At first I thought it could be a track for whippet of ferret racing, or may be event pig racing as that is popular at agricultural shows. But packing the dig with hardcore makes it look like it is a track for his popular tractor rides, which can cut up the field quite badly in wet weather.

We shall see in due course.

There has not been a lot of wildlife about. Pinkfeet were favouring a field near Hill House Stud last week. Woodpigeons were providing an aerial ballet around the trees by one of the farms in Great Altcar. A barn owl has been patrolling the barns and there was one flying round Smithy Farm in Broad Lane at Downholland this morning. The hedgerows are becoming a bit busier with birds looking for nesting sites.

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit