Today we have shrews—as far as I know, our first ones. These come from reader Richard Bond, whose notes are indented:
I saw this frenetic little beast scuttling around in a tiny part of my garden. I recognised it immediately as a shrew, but one much smaller than I have seen before: about 50 mm for head and body. That, with its colouration and relatively large tail, identified it as a Eurasian pygmy shrew (Somex minutus). It is the smallest mammal native to Britain, weighing about 4 g. It rushed about in the same area for long enough for me to get a camera and take some photographs. Owing to its rapid movement, this was very frustrating: from about 100 shots, a few were blurred by its movement and in some more it had left the field of view altogether by the time that the autofocus had done its stuff. I was helped by the bright sunny day (contrary to rumour, we do have these in Scotland), which helped with depth of focus and exposure time. In most of the rest of the photos it had buried its snout in detritus, and all that I captured was a furball with (perhaps) a scrap of tail. Of the few half-decent ones remaining, these four were the best.
I was amazed by its feet: they look more like hands with long delicate fingers. These enable it to climb a vertical stone wall, but my attempted photos of this were hopeless.
With its tiny size and its extremely active habits (it is aggressively territorial), it needs frequent food, and will eat more than its own weight in a day.
Not long ago reader John Runnels provided us with a nice 12-minute video of migrating white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana lake. Today he has another one called “cleared for takeoff,” photographed in the same lake at 7:15 a.m., October 29:
Proof that even viscious little beasts can be cute.
Ah, sadly our cat brings the odd shrew in.
But they never bring a mangled or half a Shrew in ,do they?
Cats don’t like the way they taste.
Some species of shrews are venomous. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.
BTW, great photos!
Of course Scotland has sunny days. How else could you maintain the 2000 per square foot midge population?
July 15 1972 was the last sunny day in Scotland.
Very nice “candid shots” of the shrew. Although 4 out of 100 must be frustrating, the net shots are impressively clear – you even got a nearly full face! I wonder if an action/sports option would have worked at shrew speed (the kind that take 4-10 shorts in quick succession so you get consecutive pictures of the d*g catching the frisbee). Thanks for sharing.
10 (keepers) out of 100 shots is a damned fine rate for most photography!
Yes, very shrewd photography! 😉
Congrat, Richard! It’s far from obvious to get photos of shrews on the loose. Actually it’s rare to merely see them! I studied shrews all my (professional) life, and I don’t have any photo… I’m planning to try it someday but yet it’s just a wish.
Fun photos Richard! (I can tell you live in a sunny spot by all the moss in your garden! 🙂 )
When I was working at an arboretum in upstate NY I found a bottle with 6 shrew skeletons in it. I can only imagine that one got in and could not get out and the others got in to dine on those stuck inside.
Two most enjoyable contributions! Thank you.
I have never seen a live shrew. That would be pretty amazing.
Typo alert: it’s Sorex, not Somex. When I was a kid in the UK there were many shrews in the strip of woodland outside our house and on sunny afternoons it was possible (by being very still) to watch them come out around the brambles and fireweed and forage in the sunny patches. This contributed to my reputation as the odd child who spent hours hunched over staring under hedges without moving