Country diary: what's this tiny furry thing racing around in the compost?

Sandy, Bedfordshire: Shrews are known to nest in dry, resting heaps. This animal had rashly chosen a working bin

Fifteen seconds will walk me all round the perimeter of my back garden, but even after 22 years of intimacy with this small space I could still find a new animal that might have been living there all along.

A bucket filled with fruit skins, vegetable peelings and spent teabags was bound for the compost bin at the end of the garden. The lid lifted, taking the roof off their world, and the heap’s denizens scattered to find shelter from the downpour of daylight. Ordinarily, there would be, around the rim, a writhing wreath of brandling worms, so knotted together that it would take several seconds before each extricated itself and dripped down the sides of the bin towards safety. The first odd thing I noticed that day was that there were none. The second thing was the shrew.

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* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here