Signs of Spring

In the back of the Barton house, the melting snowpack reveals shrew tunnels under the thatch. I have never seen this many. I think it has been a dearth of cats to keep them under control. This is out the back bathroom door. There are also mole tunnels everywhere, which is as I want.

My two rhubarb patches are reviving. This is exciting because it's the first fruit of the year. These are some species of Canadian rhubarb that thrives in the cold climate and short season. In the past, Wingnut and I have observed and recorded many ant aphid farms on the rhubarb (here and here) .

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Signs of Spring 1

We were out snowshoeing today in the warm (44°F or 7°C) and beautiful weather. I saw something here in New Hampshire that I never see in Vermont until the end of March: the snow tunnels that mice, shrews and voles use are already being exposed as the snow pack melts. This tunnel was in the middle of a field. This hints at a complex of intricate tunnels that go down deeper in the snow where we see the tunnels disappear. I'd love to shrink up and explore under the snow with the little rodents.

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Who Ate The Shrew?

Amelia chased Matt and me out onto the porch with this grisly chewed up shrew corpse.
Who killed this silly shrew that came out from under the refrigerator?

Not Mousie — she was helping Amy knit warm winter socks.

Uhhh, not George Barton Cabot.

I guess it wasn't Buddy, either.

And it wasn't Bad Boy Charlie.
Aren't these boys embarrassed by their winter weight?
They don't even go outside anymore.
The killer is revealed below.

Miss Sophie! She is the quickest and best mouser around.
I took this photo after Amy took the dead shrew from her.
She was sad about losing her kill.

Sophie has caught three shrews so far — one in the house and two out in the snow drifts (remember — shrews tunnel through the snow for safety from predators. But Sophie sniffs them out. See the previous post.) The cats have only caught two shrews in the basement. The Bad Boys didn't catch those. I know that because they never go into the basement. They sleep upstairs. They wake only to stumble to food and stumble back to bed.
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Shrews at the House

It seems that the shrews are wintering in the house with us. This photo is of one as it fed on birdseed under the bird feeders the other day. They are beautiful little creatures. They are not rodents, though. I don't know which shrew species this is — there are 5 types of shrews in Vermont. The Northern Short-tailed Shrew, the Cinereus or Masked Shrew, the Long-tailed or Rock Shrew, the Smoky Shrew and the American Pygmy Shrew.

The shrews tunnel through the snow just like the red squirrels. But the shrew tunnels look like worm casts and are very wiggly.

The day I took the photos of the shrews, there were two munching away under the tree. We have been hearing mice, we thought, in the walls since winter set in. Now we know that we are hearing shrews.

Mice, Shrews, Voles and Moles Set on Flickr

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