Wood mouse opportunist

I've finally taken the bird feeders down in the garden, because there's plenty of natural food available now that spring has arrived. That means that this wood mouse, that hid amongst the flower pots near the back door and raced out to pick up the seeds that the birds scattered, will also need to look elsewhere for a free meal.

There are always wood mice in the garden, usually living in the log piles, but they do occasionally find their way indoors. We've caught five in humane traps since Christmas and released them into a hedgerow about a mile away, hoping that they won't find their way back indoors. I wrote about them in the Guardian Country Diary last week.

Footprints in the snow

The snow has almost gone, hereabouts.

One of the delights of a fresh snowfall is the sudden appearance of animal tracks, that reveal just how much activity is going on in a seemingly empty winter landscape. Here are a few from earlier this week.

A field mouse, hopping from top to bottom of the picture - you can see the line where it dragged its long tail in the snow.

A grey squirrel, with those prominent claws used for climbing

A moorhen, with that little sideways-facing spur at the back of its foot

A grey partridge. The line between the footprints is where the claw on the long central toe has dragged through the deep snow

A pheasant - similar to a partridge but larger, with a longer stride

A domestic goose - big webbed feet

Mallard duck, webbed-feet turned inwards as it waddled

The ubiquitous rabbit. Fore-feet are placed one in front of the other when they lands, then longer, larger back feet overtake them before they land.

Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie....

Unlike the animal in Robert Burns' famous poem To a Mouse, this character is a wee, cunning, devious, cocky beastie because it's taken me four days to catch it. On three separate nights it managed to take the bait from the live mammal trap without tripping the trap door, but last night it finally put a foot wrong and imprisoned itself.

Many of the threats to a mouse come from overhead, from kestrels and owls, and you can see here how well those bulging, upward pointing eyes and ears are disposed for detecting any threatening movements from above. That's a fine set of whiskers too, capable of detecting the slightest vibration and helping their owner to find its way around in darkness.

It was living in the cupboard under our stairs but this Houdini mouse has now been relocated to a local woodland, where wood mice belong. No more freeloading on sultana and peanut bait.

It seems to have been doing well on its luxury diet, judging from that fine, glossy coat - which it will need tonight; more snow forecast.

For more info on wood mice, click here