I had a mystery…. I found dirt piles in my yard and no holes under them.  For about three months, I was convinced that my neighbor was putting dirt piles in my yard.  Kind of crazy, right?  But he has Alzheimer’s and people do strange stuff when they have dementia.  So my theory wasn’t totally off the wall crazy… But I never could catch him doing it!  The piles of dirt would just appear in the middle of the day.  And then I noticed them in my neighbors’ yards too… Still he could be going in their yards too, right?  But when I saw the same kinds of piles in a nearby park, I realized that my theory no longer held water.

After some research, it appears that these are mole hills.  They have rocks in them because the soil where I live is very rocky.   In my yard, a couple of the piles are right under the bird feeder. I suspect that the mole might be eating some of the seeds.

So, here are some mole hills with rocks… For those of you who have been googling for mystery dirt and pebble piles.  Of course I could be wrong, and if I am, please correct me.  If you can confirm that these are actually caused by moles, I’d like to hear from you too.  In the meantime, I will be trying to catch the moles at work!