Blog Stew with Sick French Chipmunks

• Diseased French chipmunks threaten Britain. It's in the Daily Mail, so it must be true. The chipmunks are not really French, however, but Siberian. What a relief.

• Mary Scriver scans a bat, possibly a diseased bat. It is not, however, a French bat.

• Patrick Burns has a few issues with Wendell Berry and what Burns calls "entertainment agriculture."

• Like most outdoor writers I have known (and me when I was one), Chad Love blanches at the tsunami of sheer gadgetry (which he is expected to promote), but he still thinks there is something innately valuable in hunting and fishing themselves.

Vagrants

I was on the verandah yesterday and thought, "That's an odd-looking wasps' nest."

I have been on patrol against the paper wasps lately. Shelby the dog was stung and had an allergic reaction that sent her to the vet. Of course, she will chase and snap at them.

It was no nest but a little brown bat that decided the porch rafters were a place to sleep while planning worldwide domination.

Meanwhile, the woods around the house are suddenly quiet. The black-headed grosbeaks have departed. Gone, just like that.