I got a surprise last night when I reached home. I flung open the curtains to the back door and spied a magpie on the patio. He was worrying away at the brickwork at the end of the patio and was oblivious to my presence. Usually corvids are extremely aware of their surrounding, so he was clearly rapt by something. I opened the door to investigate and he flew off.
He'd been burrowing his way into an ants' nest. I knew there was a nest inside the wall, but the inhabitants, it seems, had dislodged several pounds of brick dust with their scurrying. This had piled-up at the foot of the wall and formed a little wedge. I don't Hoover the garden as a rule, so there it stayed.
The ants clearly thought this was an extension that they hadn't previously noticed, and decided to move into it. He's a stoical animal, your ant, so the good fortune of the extra space was probably ascribed to the ant god. There's a job for the underachievers among you out there - God of the Ants. Can you imagine what the robes look like? Superb. Anyhoos, the ants were desperately rearranging the furniture before one-for-money swooped down from the heavens once more.
I have a lot of time for the ant. They have a certain noble bearing, which for an animal the size of a grain of basmati takes some doing. And they're quite peaceable too, well, for insects they are. They don't sting, and they'll only try and take a bite out of you as you're about to step on them. I think that's fair enough. I'm sure I'd do the same in the circs..
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