SmallMammalCam

This blog has been taken over by insects in the last few weeks so it is high time we had some trail camera images.  My small mammal trail camera box, modelled on a Mostela, has been set in the garden for over a month, hoping to catch a glimpse of a weasel or a stoat.  So far there has been no sign but smaller animals are daily visitors.  I put in a few sunflower hearts from time to time so the box will smell of mice and voles which may, in turn, tempt a curious weasel.

The most frequent visitors, especially in daytime, are bank voles.  They vary in size as some are not full grown.  The video shows a full size vole stuffing its cheeks with seeds before taking them off to eat in peace or to hide for later.

Wood mice are mainly nocturnal and so far have only shown up at night, so in black and white on the video via infrared.  They usually turn up long after the voles have taken all the food.

Common shrews are insectivores but they are surprisingly keen on sunflower hearts, something I have seen before.

Smallest of all are pygmy shrews.  Weighing only 5g or so they are slimmer than common shrews with a proportionately longer tail and with two-tone colouring rather than the three-tone of common shrews.

The last video puts them all together to compare their sizes.