mice – The Hermits' Rest

I Found Heaven

Oh, you’d suspect I found metaphorical heaven here on the ranch in the beautiful sunset light.

That is a nice thought! It was a beautiful day, and my sunset walk was pretty darned heavenly.

However, the Heaven I found was not for me. It was for Lucky here.

You see, I went to feed the chickens and noticed the feed bag was rather well chewed. So, I picked up the bag. I was not surprised to see that there were little creatures in my sealed food bin. At least four tiny mice running around on a layer of chicken feed. That could be Heaven for tiny rodents!

I had trouble getting mouse photos. I was kind of grossed out.

That’s when I saw that the mice weren’t alone. Lucky was in there with them. Now, being in a safe warm box full of tasty morsels is any rat snake’s idea of heaven! Lucky is young, but climbed well enough to get in!

Well. Yuck. So, I took out all the food the mice hadn’t gotten to yet. One big bag I took out and emptied onto the ground. That’s where Lucky was hiding. That’s when I picked her up and took her over by the hay bales and let her go (former caregiver for a rat snake, so I have the skills).

I was able to go back to my violated storage container and create an exit for the mice. If they are still there tomorrow I’ll eject them when I clean and disinfect my storage box. I sure hope it hasn’t developed a hole in it. I’m pretty sure all these creatures got in when I had the lid up.

I’m outa here. Thanks for the hay and food!

Anyway, this was all kinda icky. Heck, I was a suburban band mom not all that long ago. I’m not always the tough rancher gal I’d like to be. That’s why I went on that sunset walk. I needed to breathe fresh air.

Ah, a beautiful clasping coneflower that thinks it’s spring.

I did discover multiple spring flowers starting to grow. I assume the next freeze will slow them down, but right now it’s spring-like.

Ah, before I forget, I got my “furniture” set up in the birding station. Two low stools are a table and footrest. They were a pain to put together because the legs are slanted, so I had to smoosh them together to get the bottoms to fit into the tops. I just about didn’t have the arm strength. But I prevailed.

I also got another weatherproof storage box that was easier to put together because it was cheap plastic. I will not store mouse food in it, just my binoculars and cushion in case of rain. It also can serve as visitor seating. So far, the only visitor has been Harvey.

I need to figure out what to do with the leftover wood. I’m not sure if there’s a plan to use it.

Notice that the inside walls are also finished. This is one classy outdoor folly. My friend Tandy says it looks like the stand where Lucy in Charlie Brown comics used to dispense her mental health advice.

I need a sign that says, “The birder is in” perhaps.

Thinking of all of you, especially those dealing with health challenges.

You Never Know Who You’ll Meet around Here

I ran into some residents of the ranch I don’t normally see today, all of whom I thought were darned cute. It made for a great lunch break!

First, I headed over to feed the chickens this morning. When I opened the supposedly tightly locked storage container, I heard a rustling. I looked into the scratch, and four little black eyes calmly looked up at me.

This is primo chicken food! (note second nose at far right)

There were two tiny deermice enjoying the seeds. They are just about the cutest little vermin imaginable. I told them hello, then took them over to where I knew there were other mice and let them go. One trotted out and disappeared into the grass, but the other one took a little encouragement. It was a nice visit, but I need to make sure to shut the chicken food container completely from now on!

But, we just met! We don’t want to leave yet!

As I was waiting with Lee for the vet to come and give us our heartworm medicine and trim the dogs’ nails (no, that did NOT happen, and there will be sedation in the future), I wandered around looking for interesting plants and insects. More and more Indian paintbrush plants are blooming, and I just can’t get enough of how pretty they are.

But, mostly I chased this one butterfly. It was all white, at least from a distance. I’m sure I looked ridiculous trying to befriend it, but eventually I got it close enough to get a reasonable photo.

So, it was not all white. At first all I saw was the spot, but when I looked up the white family of butterflies, I saw that there was a border of black and white along the edges of the wings. Aha, it wasn’t a regular white butterfly, but was Anthocharis midea, the Falcate Orangetip, which apparently doesn’t always have an orange tip. No wonder I was confused. I now know they were discovered in 1809 and are mostly found in Texas and Oklahoma. What a cool visitor to meet!

The next encounter I had was with a whole family, or more accurately, 3 of the four lifecycle stages of one insect. First I found this cool looking fellow, scrounging around with a few of its buddies.

This grass is delicious, and so is the chicory.

I was pretty excited when it came up as a seven-spotted lady beetle (ladybug). Sure enough, that’s what the larval stage looks like. Pretty soon I found this happy specimen who’s an adult.

Then, a few feet away, I noticed this guy, who I’d never seen before. The bug was very easy to photograph.

When I looked that one up on iNaturalist, I got all kinds of beetles, but none of them looked right. Then I got to thinking that it sort of looked like that adult and larva ladybug. I googled the life stages of a ladybug, and there was my finding, a ladybug in its larval stage! That means that in 15 minutes I found every part of the lifecycle except eggs!

I also spotted the first pink evening primrose on our property this year. That’s good news!

I’m going to declare this lunch hour a successful social event, where I met some fascinating neighbors!

A Field Day for Field Mice

I am pretty familiar with what lives around the Hermits’ Rest, probably because looking for moving objects is one of my best skills; I seem to have been blessed with better-than-average peripheral vision. That helps with birds, snakes, and stuff. It also helps with rodents, so I’m pretty darned sure we have some big old tree rats (Rattus rattus, my favorite Latin name), along with a heck of a lot of mice and voles. We always see them when Lee shreds the pastures (along with a whole lot of happy hawks, caracaras, and falcons).

The past few weeks, though, I’ve gotten a LOT of practice in mouse identification and spotting. It started when I saw mouse poop in one of the bathrooms. I was just glad it wasn’t rat poop. Lee saw that one and said the dogs “played with it.” Then, I saw some in the other bedroom. Uh oh. Worse, Lee found a mouse in his car. I figure they came in looking for the food that is always in there.

However, when my sister and I got in my (totally food-free) car and were greeted by a friendly mouse face, I knew something was up. She fled, and I escorted that one out of the car. I was concerned. Why are we suddenly seeing so many mice in the house and garage, I wondered?

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