WoodMouseCam

A few more pictures from the trail camera in a log pile in the garden.  In the daytime it records only bank voles but at night the wood mice join in.

Then something I haven't seen before, a baby wood mouse.  At the beginning there is an adult in the video as well so we can see how small the baby is.

Female wood mice produce four litters a year, each of 4-7 young, and females can breed in their first year.  At this time of year there are about 40,000,000 wood mice in this country but the population will grow to about 120,000,000 by the end of the summer.  Few of them will survive to next summer.  I expect many are eaten by weasels, stoats, foxes, owls and domestic cats.  About half are eaten by tawny owls.  A pair of tawny owls raising young are likely to get through the equivalent of 4-5000 mice a year, although they obviously eat other things than mice.  There are about 20,000 pairs of tawny owls in this country so they need a lot of mice.

So far I have had only one fleeting glimpse of a common shrew on the camera so I may try a different location in the hope of getting a good picture.