It looked pretty darn black down yonder in that hole to me, so yes, as far as I am concerned it is most definitely a Black Hole. No doubt about that. The thing that has me curious is what could have dug it and what/whom is currently residing there?
I was out there, a couple of days last week, doing the trash detail, ongoing, never-ending picking up of tree limbs and stuff inconsiderate, thoughtless, ill-mannered passers-by toss out the vehicle window. Things like empty plastic water bottles, beer and soda cans, sytro. cups, fast-food wrappers, all manner of plastic. And the ubiquitous plastic shopping bags that probably out-number humans on the planet. And notice a big, deep hole in the ground. Not like where a stump would decay over time, and leave a hole where the trunk had been. But a hole that looks currently occupied, deeper than I can see into, with the mouth of the space at least as the diameter as a dinner plate. Not just a wee little worm-like space, but really big: like whom-ever is living there had very recently done some renovations, and enlarged their living quarters. Freshly dug dirt scattered around the mouth of the hole, as if the dirt was recently flung up from excavating.
It's located where there was once a big pine tree, so the earth is not the usual brick-like, hard as stone red Georgia clay, but softer as a result of the base of the trunk and decaying roots leaving the earth easier to dig and rearrange. Out in the front of the house, under dense shade of a Japanese Magnolia. But I noticed yesterday, when digging up smilax and whacking back azaleas, it does not look as 'lived in' as it did last week. So maybe the 'disturbance in the galaxy' was me - rooting around out there in the area enough to make the un-invited guest relocate?
It is dug at an angle, so I can't see very far down, and No Way am I going to get down on the ground and do any Serious Looking. It's about the size of what I think a big land tortoise would dig, but not in the type earth or location they prefer. They are more about pine trees, scrubby oaks, and sandy soil. So I don't think credit should be given to native gopher turtles.
And: that's not the only hole. There is another one on the slope behind the house, cleverly hidden in the dense growth of a huge forsythia bush. The plant/bush is enormous, and and excellent disguise for keeping the mouth of the hole obscured. I would not have noticed if I had not been whacking the forsythia, and on the down-side of the slope when I suddenly noticed. And again, located right there where there used to be a big pine tree that we had cut down, and left a stump to decompose. I know that one cannot be due to tortoise: much to difficult for a big, ungainly, slow moving reptile to get into. I am currently wondering if it might be the burrow of a ??????? Do they live underground? Do they tunnel? Do they 'nest'? Could it be a whole colony? Hmmmm....Aliens? Zombies?
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