Thursday 22 July 2010

more squirrels

I never expected to see little red squirrels in the south east of England, but there they were in a Wildlife Centre on the Kent/Sussex border. Their enclosure was so big they didn't know it was an enclosure, big enough to share with a few deer and any visitors who were wandering around.

The wee reds are normally shy, but these ones were so used to people that they came within inches of me. They looked smoother coated and smaller-eared than the reds I've seen in Northumberland and Scotland - maybe they don't live in such cold wild places, and don't need to be sharp and well padded.

Any there were some Very Small Creatures I had never seen before. Harvest Mice.

They are tiny, with pointy faces and tails for swinging from grass stalks, and so light that they can run up a stem of grass without bending it. They tumble over each other and don't appear to notice. They build tennis ball nests out of grass, and one small and peckish harvest mouse was enjoying nibbling a bit of his front door as we watched. (A long grass stalk that gradually disappeared into the nest, and into the owner.)

If you want an uncomplicated life, be a harvest mouse.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

that remindes me of the mistmantle chronicles, wich i love!

margaret mcallister said...

Hi, Diana! I think I saw Juniper in the squirrel enclosure

Margi