How did they get here?

[Two Socks]

It is an incredibly nice day out here today, and I have taken a great walk through some local woods. The forest was full of flowers and birds, and I enjoyed myself very much. I stumbled upon two riddles that I`d like to share however. In both cases the question is: How did it get there?

#1. The bird on the branche. This carcass of what I think might be a blackbird was on a branch, with the wings on either side of it. At the place I found it, it is highly unlikely that someone put it there. We have some buzzards in the area, and I wondered if this could be the remainder of a lunch that was dropped from a treetop and rotted away merrily on this branche?

#2. The Benchgrinder. Not far from the bird I stumbled upon this thing. It is in the middle of a small wood, and hundreds of meters away from the closest place to park a car. It is a really heavy duty grinder, and mounted on an even heavier steel pole that it once stood on. Even the thick steel base-plate to mount the whole thing to the floor was there. I have not the faintest clue how it got here. People wanting to dump it would not take the effort to carry it so far out. Can anyone thing of a scenario where you`d need to bring a grinder to the woods to leave it there?

 

[Two Socks]

Oh, and I couldn`t decide where to post this. It this is the wrong place then feel free to (re)move it, mods.

 

[Toddy]

Kind of a double conundrum

Technically, gory stuff always gets shifted into Fair Game. That way folks have a heads up about opening something in public.

Let's play it safe, shall we ?

No idea about the grinder at all....unless it's an area where one of the volunteer groups have been coppicing, etc., and maybe wanted a brutal way to sharpen tools ?

Odd the things that turn up; someone's thrown a Dyson down into the burn here....they would have had to lug it nearly half a mile to do so

Mary

 

[weekender]

I agree with your thoughts on the bird remains however the bench grinder well! That's something else altogether. I once found a large bench vice completely off the beaten track in some woods. Also came across a tractor!! The trees were growing through it?! Made me wonder how someone could just forget where they left it?!

 

[Two Socks]

Thanks for moving the thread Toddy.

If people leave grinders and vices in the woods, perhaps we can forage ourselves all we need for a workshop.

 

[John Fenna]

In a wood on the banks of the Wye I found a wooden boat with a tree growing through it.... a big tree!

 

[Harvestman]

The bird remains make me think goshawk, as the classic predator of small birds like blackbirds.

No idea what sort of predator leaves the carcass of a bench grinder though...

 

[Trencakey]

I see theres an electric wire coming from the grinder but I wander if it has a PTO attached to it to work off a tractor/land-rover.The way the grinder rests are set up suggest that it was used at the same angle it was found at rather than standing upright ?

 

[Two Socks]

That might be true Trencakey. I didn`t dig out the end of the cable from the soil so I do not know that. The position of the rests does indeed suggest it was used in this position.

 

[Demonwolf444]

BOP either take food to nests for their young, or sit on the ground under cover eating their prey. Its likely that the bird was injured or on its last legs came in to land and got its self caught up. Or it could have fallen from a roost. Opportunistic animals may have eaten it and the rest of the living things stripped the meat.

The bench grinder was clearly collected by magpies.