Feeding the hens and fallen trees

I WENT down to feed the hens the other morning and my path was blocked by a fallen tree. It was a medium-sized sycamore and a couple of years ago it had been damaged by a grey squirrel.

The sycamore is a member of the maple family and maples have sugary sap. Squirrels strip their bark off to get at this sweet delicacy.

The bark stripping hadn’t killed the tree. It seemed healthy last summer and came into a full leaf again a few weeks ago. But then there was a night of wind and rain. The rain added weight to the top of the tree and the crop of large new leaves acted as sails. One gust broke the trunk at a point a couple of metres above the ground where it had been weakened by the squirrel. It will probably grow back eventually but in the meantime I have to get out the chainsaw to clear the path.