Doing a quick check in the back forty of Walkabout Estates this evening, I spotted this guy, almost certainly the same one as the first in this post from a couple days ago.
I’d seen him nearby earlier in the day – this was not even half-a-meter from both the earlier photo and this afternoon’s spotting. He’s entwined in a roll of chicken wire leaning against the edge of the greenhouse, by his own doing mind you – I’m glad to see that he found a spot not just warm and snug, but safe from being spotted as well.
Seriously, I think the instinct to find a safe place to snooze kinda slipped in this case. I found them plenty of times last year, either basking where they could get some overnight dew during the drought of the summer, or tucked in between leaves as the nights got chillier. It’s gotten a bit chilly tonight, but I doubt the benefits of this spot are notable.
While out there, I saw the ass-end of a mouse disappearing over top of a fence post, and played a little tag back and forth trying to get a good view. The mouse, instead of jumping off the post and disappearing into the voluminous leaves surrounding the area, chose to slip into the gap between post and garage and hold still, allowing me (after much angling and adjusting of the flash) to get a quick photo.
This isn’t a good enough view to determine species, though I would suspect, from their prevalence in the area, that it’s either a house mouse (Mus musculus) or eastern deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) – I’d lean towards the former because, in my experience, the latter is a better climber than this one seemed to be.
No frogs anywhere though, which is curious after finding five out there last night/early this morning. No rain tonight though, so maybe that was it. They’ll be back.