Fun with the Trailcam

 

The Blackbirds seem to be the stars of our Trailcam show so far, at least during daylight hours. However, we think we may have caught a mouse on camera. I will post the photos below and you can decide for yourselves. The pictures are not very clear, I must admit, and it is quite possible that we have exercised rather too much imagination! 

Since the mouse is, or would be, so tiny and possibly fairly hard to spot at the best of times, I have done a little cropping on Photoshop and have also indicated not only the (query) position of the mouse, but also the (side and frontal) view of it that we think we may see. 

The camera shows that it was just below freezing when the camera clicked twice at 3.51 early this morning. It also definitely shows spots, which may or may not be eyes; and, of course, something must have triggered the camera in the first place while we were definitely indoors. It will be interesting to hear your views if you care to leave a comment! Alternatively you can cast a vote on my Twitter poll over the next 24 hours.

 

Hole for a Vole?

Snowdrops and Crocus, St Mary's churchyard, Martlesham

Sunday afternoon was dark, wet and cold. We decided to go in search of a bit of colour in the form of the spring flowers that we guessed would be peaking in St Mary's churchyard. The area perches above Martlesham Creek and the River Deben, and has lovely views on a sunny day. The snowdrops were just past their best, but still giving a good show. The crocuses were a bit bedraggled by the rain, but the overall picture was one of beauty as you can see.

St Mary's is one of many churches in this area with flint-facings. Grimes Graves, the neolithic flint mine site, is a two-hour drive away or thereabouts, and a place we have often visited. You can read more about the use of flint in East Anglia in this EDP article here. 

There had been rather a lot of rain. At one point, in among the purple crocus heads...

... we found a single golden flower.

There were a few primroses, looking a bit the worst for wear, but nonetheless a joy to see on a dreary afternoon.

David stopped me in my tracks at this point with a quick nudge. 

I looked and there peeping out of this hole just in front of a gravestone,

30 cm from the church path, was a round rodent head with beady eyes. 

Sadly it retreated the (split-)second it saw us. 

We stood back and waited for a while, but it did not reappear. 

I took a quick photo with my zoom lens and we left the little creature in peace.

I looked up rodent holes on the web once we were back home, 

and I suspect the rodent was a vole.

The churchyard prides itself on its wildlife,

and since the birds were making themselves extremely scarce that day,

it was good to feel that we had seem something truly wild.

*

P.S. You can see a vole hole here.

For those undertaking a survey, 

a coin certainly helps to give a sense of scale,

if placed without causing a disturbance.