Checking out the back forty of Walkabout Estates by the headlamp tonight, I bent down to pick up a couple of things, stood up, and found myself face-to-face with an eastern deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) perched atop the fence. I’ve seen this several times before – they seem to like traversing the fence – but this one stayed put, even as I leaned close, and flinched as I gently poked its rump yet didn’t leave its post. I found it curious, but I didn’t have the camera or even my (urk!) smutphone to get a photo, so I left it alone and started checking out the rest of the yard. Returning a couple of minutes later, I found it still in the same place, still remaining as I leaned in close, and so I decided, if it was this cooperative, I’d go in and get the camera. I had to hook up the macro flash and switch lenses, and I was sure that it would have gone by the time I returned a few minutes later. I was wrong.
This was totally unprecedented, but far be it from me to pass up the opportunity, so I started firing off the frames, working my way closer and changing angles where I could – still being careful not to disturb the fence or make too much noise, mind you, but I’d already spoken to it on that initial encounter, expecting it to hurtle off at the sound of my voice, and this hadn’t occurred.
I was watching it carefully at this point, wondering what was making it reluctant to flee, and never could determine why this might be. I thought perhaps its foot was caught, but no, it showed full mobility in all legs, even switching to another fence post at one point before switching back. It started head-down once, pausing before it relinquished its hind foot’s grip on the top, as if scared of falling. These guys are great climbers and of course it had gotten up there on its own, so this wasn’t making sense; it was also well beyond juvenile size so unlikely the first time that it had climbed this high. Out of curiosity I examined the ground beneath the fence, on both sides, for any evidence of a predator like a snake – nothing.
I left it be after several frames and watered the plants, which takes some time (there are 26 pots I think,) and it was still there when I returned. Bizarre.
I came in and unloaded the memory card, and decided my model needed a treat, going back out with a small handful of cat food and a fragment of dog biscuit. This time there was no sign of the mouse, so whatever issue that it had was now overcome. I still left out the food, because I’m a guy.
Meanwhile, rather than make an entirely separate post, I’ll just throw down the moon from earlier in the evening, because it looks sharp. We are closing in on the (scheduled) peaks of two meteor showers, the delta Aquariids and the alpha Capricornids, and perhaps after the moon drops low enough I’ll make an attempt at them, tonight or tomorrow night – we’ll see what happens. We all know my luck with meteors, so don’t be looking anxiously for posts.
