Creatures in the Compost Bin

TIME TO SORT OUT the compost bins. First I disturb an ant colony. The workers rush around taking their pupae to safety. Long orange-brown centipedes meander around like a dragon at a Chinese New Year street party.

Lifting a piece of sacking to tidy behind the heap, I disturb two toads which swagger off grumpily down the nearest burrow. Better leave them in peace; I carefully replace the sacking.

I'm transferring material from one side of the double wooden bin to the other, but, worried that I might spear a toad with the fork, I start lifting out clumps of compost by (gloved) hand. I disturb a small pinky grey creature which isn't much bigger than a large bumblebee. I carefully extricate it from the debris. It curls up with its little feet in the air, looking cute and helpless - a baby vole, a perfect miniature, like a netsuke carving, covered with a bloom of silky fur.

Then I notice that I've already thrown one into the adjacent bin. Gently teasing out a twist of dry grass I find another and a careful search turns up a fourth.

I place them in an old wooden box in their nest of dry grass and wonder if the mother will come back for them and, if she does, whether she will accept them with my scent.

I soon spot her searching around on the compost. I put the box right next to the hole she appeared from and cover it with a sack.

Later I surprise her carrying one of her babies in her mouth, transferring it to another burrow further down in the heap.

I guess I'll have to leave work on the compost bins for a while.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'