Country diary: Down in the grass, an invisible ball of wizardry | Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Northam Burrows, Devon: In the low dawn light I can make out a harvest mouse nest. Even when empty, they’re a sight to beholdAbove the sodden ground, amid pools of foot-swallowing water, hangs a feat of geometric wizardry. The harvest mouse’s nest is suspended in the high grass, barely discernible from the stalks that surround it in the scant early light.I try to unravel what I’m seeing. The carefully constructed grasses, spun into a spherical nest, seem at odds with their placement. The nest looks like it’s been flung into the tussocks. Yet it is made from living grass – not flung into the tussocks but part of them. It is hard to look at it without losing my balance, squelching down into icy water, yet this tiny rodent – the UK’s smallest – has managed to build the nest while hanging from the grass. The agile, ginger‑furred mouse uses its dexterous prehensile tail to hold on to the stalks and crafts the leaves in an impressive stunt of aerial weaving. The result is a slender domicile, no bigger than an apple. Continue reading...
Northam Burrows, Devon: In the low dawn light I can make out a harvest mouse nest. Even when empty, they’re a sight to behold
Above the sodden ground, amid pools of foot-swallowing water, hangs a feat of geometric wizardry. The harvest mouse’s nest is suspended in the high grass, barely discernible from the stalks that surround it in the scant early light.
I try to unravel what I’m seeing. The carefully constructed grasses, spun into a spherical nest, seem at odds with their placement. The nest looks like it’s been flung into the tussocks. Yet it is made from living grass – not flung into the tussocks but part of them. It is hard to look at it without losing my balance, squelching down into icy water, yet this tiny rodent – the UK’s smallest – has managed to build the nest while hanging from the grass. The agile, ginger‑furred mouse uses its dexterous prehensile tail to hold on to the stalks and crafts the leaves in an impressive stunt of aerial weaving. The result is a slender domicile, no bigger than an apple. Continue reading...
