Saturday, December 15, 2012

Where the abstracted eye?


P

I went for a walk at Luukki with my oldest daughter, to lake Halkolampi. There was a tree fallen across the road, so we had to leave the car farther away, and walk to the parking lot.

We ate picnic by an open fire, and a little thing, I think it was Apodemus flavicollis, came from hiding to check whether we had something on offer. The mouse was rather active, running and jumping around, and when it stopped to eat, it occasionally wrapped its tail around the body to warm up.

(Posting title is from the poem The Poet Ridiculed by Hysterical Academics by W. D. Snodgrass.)

2 comments:

Paul said...

Who could resist a bit of warmth and an opportunity for a bite to eat on such a day? :)

Juha Haataja said...

Indeed, it is starting to get difficult to find things to eat for these mice, and they do not hibernate either but stay active during the winter. They try to get into buildings and can cause structural damage, but here in the middle of the forest there are no such places nearby, only of couple of shelters for fireplaces.

We saw in snow tracks of this type of mouse at another fireplace in Luukki a week ago, but then I didn't recognize who had made them. This mouse uses its tail to jump - a bit like kangaroo - and it can jump quite a distance, up to a meter.

Seeds are a favorite, so if you offer it apple slices it may eat only the seeds...