Like cats on poor mice

Love this picture by Dave Thompson from NWT. Our back garden mice have been a lot more shy this year. You can't really blame them with Mofo and the rest of the street's feline cohort prowling about. He's shucked his bell three times this summer. Last year the mice (yes up to three) used to sit on the wall a couple of inches from the Robin or sometimes the Dunnock, happily munching some oats together. I saw the mouse and the Dunnock arrive at the same time once. A Scooby Doo moment ensued with both creatures almost bumping into each other and making a swift terrified retreat back into the safety of the thick green stuff. I think Dunnocks are slowly evolving into mice. The problem with cats hasn't just arrived with Mofo though. A couple of years ago I was night filming a mouse eating nuts from the birdfeeder in the front tree using night vision. His little beady eye was lit up white as he nibbled. Then all of a sudden the entire picture shook. I viewed the footage back but still couldn't work out what had happened. I slowed the film down and then I could just see the top of a cat leaping up at least five feet through branches and the mouse doing his own leap away just before the cat arrived.
And today is my Birthday. My family are buying me a little digital camera for the blog. I'm going to pick it up later in the week.