Nature Notes

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The Harvest Mouse

High up in tall grasses and crops the harvest mouse builds its little round nest. By weaving strands of grass tightly together, the harvest mouse makes a safe nest where it will raise its babies.

The harvest mouse is the smallest rodent in Britain. It has yellowish-brown fur, a white underside, and small, furry ears.

Using its long tail to grip the tall grasses, the harvest mouse searches for seeds, fruit, and bulbs to eat. Before the winter, some food is stored underground to be used during the colder months.

Although harvest mice are active during the night and the day, you are most likely to see them at dusk, seeking out food in the fields.

The Rabbit

Munching on leaves, cereal crops, and grasses, the rabbit is found in open meadows, woodland, and roadside hedgerows.

Rabbits are often seen popping up from holes in the ground. These holes are the entrances to tunnel networks called warrens. Within each warren are many rabbit burrows containing nests lined with grass and fur.

Baby rabbits are called kittens. They are born in the nests all through the year, but mostly in the spring and summer months when large families can be seen hopping through the meadows.

The Hare

Larger than the rabbit, the hare is also much faster. In fact, its long, strong back legs help it to be the fastest land animal in the United Kingdom!

Often seen bounding across open grassland during the day, the hare also seeks woodland and hedgerows to rest in safety.

The hare lives out in the open without an underground burrow. It digs a hollow called a form where it can shelter from the weather. When baby hares, called leverets, are born, the mother hare places each one in a form of its own and only returns once a night to feed them.

The Mole

Deep underground, the mole lives secretly in a network of tunnels and chambers. Tell-tale mounds of earth, called molehills, can sometimes be found where a mole breaks through into the open.

This small creature has short, black hair like velvet and large, sharp claws perfect for digging. Its eyes are very small, but it has a fantastic sense of smell to help it find plenty of earthworms to eat as it digs its underground tunnels.

At the end of certain tunnels, the mole builds a large chamber and lines it with dried grass to make a comfortable nest.

The Hedge Sparrow

Known also as the dunnock, this little brown and gray bird is very shy. It stays well hidden and collects its food by creeping along near bushes and other safe cover. There it finds insects, spiders, worms, and seeds to eat, without being seen.

If you do spot a little hedge sparrow hiding in the garden, you will see that it has some blue-gray feathers, a dark brown, streaky back, and pink legs.

As it searches for food, the hedge sparrow flicks its tail and wings, so it seems like a very nervous little bird.

The Frog

More active at night than during the day, the frog hops around meadows, gardens, and woodland. It can often be found near ponds and shallow lakes.

With its long, sticky tongue, the frog catches insects, worms, slugs, and snails.

In winter, the frog finds a safe, warm place to spend the colder months, under logs or stones. As it can breathe through its skin, the frog can even spend the winter under the water, buried in mud.

With its smooth, greenish-brown body, webbed toes, and short but strong back legs, the frog can move about in water as well as on land.

The Duck

The male mallard duck, called the drake, is easy to recognize with his dark green, shiny head. The female is light brown with a striking blue stripe across her wings.

Often found in parks and woodland on lakes and ponds, this duck feeds on water plants and small water creatures.

Ducks can often be seen “dabbling”—dipping forward into the water with their tails in the air, finding food under the surface.

The Otter

Cavorting on muddy banks, the playful otter is a very appealing animal. With webbed toes and a tail shaped like the rudder of a boat, the otter is an excellent swimmer.

It uses its long, sensitive whiskers to detect prey such as fish and frogs moving under the water. Out of the water, otters feed on small birds and voles.

During the day, the otter often rests in a burrow in the river bank called a holt, saving its energy for hunting and playing at dusk.

The Fox

Found mainly in open country, the red fox comes out at dusk and hunts through the night for insects, birds, fruit, small mammals, and just about anything else it can find to eat.

Mostly covered in reddish brown fur, its long, bushy tail, called a brush, often has a white tip, and its chest is often white.

A fox will make its home, called a den, in a sheltered area, often beneath rocks, under buildings, or in old burrows.

Occasionally, foxes group together to hunt in a pack, but they generally hunt and forage alone.

The Weasel

Sharp eyesight and good hearing make the weasel an excellent predator. It hunts during the day and night, finding mice, voles, birds, and eggs to eat.

The fur is pale brown on a weasel’s back and white on the underside of its long, slim body.

Weasels like to live anywhere they can find food and shelter, so they can often be found in woodland, grassland, and even sand dunes. Each weasel marks its territory using scent and defends it fiercely against intruders.

The Squirrel

With its large, bushy tail, the gray squirrel can often be seen darting through the trees in woodland, parks, and gardens.

Searching out nuts, berries, fruit, roots, shoots, and acorns, the squirrel stores its supplies by burying them underground or hiding them in hollow tree trunks.

Building a little round nest called a drey using sticks and leaves, the squirrel rests at night and comes out to find food during the day. In summer, a squirrel’s drey is often attached to tree branches. During colder months and the breeding season, dreys are often built inside a hollow tree.

The Hedgehog

Noisy little hedgehogs can be heard at night, shuffling around in undergrowth to find beetles, snails, slugs, and worms to eat.

With a good sense of smell and sharp hearing, the hedgehog relies on these senses in the dark, as its eyesight is poor.

By autumn, the hedgehog has put on plenty of weight and is ready for winter when it will hibernate until the following spring.

This unusual, prickly creature can have up to 5,000 brown spines with yellow tips. In case of any danger, the hedgehog can roll up into a tight ball so that the spines protect its soft, furry underside.

The Badger

Badgers are easy to recognize, with white striped faces and silvery gray fur.

At night, badgers come out of their underground homes, called setts, to find worms, seeds, berries, frogs, mice, birds, and eggs to eat.

A badger will take good care of its sett, regularly airing the nesting materials from the many different chambers and passageways.

Badgers live in groups of up to 12 and often play and romp with each other. A female badger will have up to six cubs in a litter.