Walking with the Wild.

 This old log is supposed to be providing a take-off site line for a galloping horse coming in to jump over the thick hedge behind... It has been rolled about three feet away from the base of the fence. You can see the gap where it is supposed to be.


This is what is left of a yellow-jacket nest that was hidden inside another big, decaying log.  Fabulous designs in that beautiful nest. You just don't want to get close. Yellow jackets don't take kindly to being disturbed. Or eaten.



It is a little regretable that this nest was hidden in another of the older jumps up in our cross country schooling field. It is a good thing that the yellow jacket wasps are no longer there. It is less of a good thing that the entire log has been shredded apart.

And who, you ask, would do such a dastardly thing?  Why, hungry Mr. (or Mrs.) Bear.  It would be the work of a moment to shred apart a log like these.

Elsewhere in the field, we found flattened 'nests' where the deer have been sleeping.

Lots of signs of the wild turkeys, including feathers left in their wake, and a brand new hatch of busy little poults (one of which I was within inches of catching, but then began to wonder what I would do with it once it was in my hands, so it is free).  And this fine example of a slightly unwelcome but very lovely weed, Meadow Goats'Beard.
We also found wolf scat, indicating that the pack has been perusing the meadows too.  Taffy, brave poodle, always 'marks' wolf scat with a bit of her own urine, just to let the pack know who is REALLY in charge here...   (We are not sure that Taffy has thought this through to all its possible consequences.)