I spy with my little eye…
3 05 2008
I was walking along the track next to one of the pig pens when I glimpsed a flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye. I stopped and walked over to the pen, where I spotted this little fellow busily investigating the bottom of a trotter print.
If you couldn’t see him in the first photograph, how about this one? He was very small, even by mouse standards.
And here he is up close. I couldn’t work out what he was investigating, but I did spot that his tail was much, much longer than the length of his head and body combined. He also “walked” in a series of hops, instead of scampering, and his underside and legs were dirty white. I suspect that makes him a wood mouse. He managed to escape to a hole under a stone just outside the electric fence a hop and a skip ahead of Dolores’ snout!
I think they are so sweet to look at. I feel a bit different when they are round my food though, there they either get trapped and evicted or they are fair game for the cats, and I’m not too happy with the one that’s eaten into the best of my single mattresses and judging by the stain has died in there.
Certainly looks like a woodmouse…it’s tiny!
I miss the mice that used to get into our kitchen, even if they did eat my lunch one night. My fault for forgetting to put it away properly.
Years ago we replaced our cooker as two of the plates had died; when we dragged it out there was a very stiff mouse entangled in the wiring.
I don’t mind forest mice living out under the trees and hedges, in their niche as it were. But if they come into the outbuildings or the house, then they get trapped and baited.
The Wee ‘Un’s favourite creature find was a shrew that he discovered last year, although he’s quite fond of frogs and toads, too.
They can be pests, even though they are cute little fellows. We have them in our house walls and roof at present. Today was spent lifting some iron sheeting off the roof and clearing out the homes they had set up in the insulation. Then some bait was enclosed inside the roof.
The Mini Foxies also hunt them under the house and around the sheds and that keeps them down.
Amazing camouflage this little critter has. Great photo. Many years back we bought a Hibachi which came equipped with a family of mice. The mom whisked the babies into the unused fireplace, well behind the screen to keep the cats away. We did trap and take the lot to a nearby field to make their natural home. G
The swallows arrived this morning—much later than last year when they arrived unseasonably early.
I used to trap ours too; they stopped getting in once the house was finished and we managed to get a carpet down, covering all points of entry in the floorboards.
the swifts have arrived here today too!