Monday, April 29, 2013

Spring cleaning

Ever since the snow melted off the sidewalks, piles of sand have been appearing between the cobbles. 

Entrances to an ant nest.
Some of these sand piles are ant-hills, produced by ants as they expand their underground tunnels.  Though miniscule to us, some of the sand particles are larger and heavier than the ants.  Nevertheless, the ants are able to carry these particles up and out of the nest, utilizing both their surprising physical strength and teamwork.

Ant workers moving sand out of the nest.
In addition to the ant nests, I found a few sand piles with much larger entrances -- and occupants.  To be continued...

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