My Garden at Night

[Jane the Novice]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who goes out into the garden at midnight with a cup of coffee and a torch. Mine seems to come alive at night. I live on a housing estate in a small town in Essex and the night time wildlife gives me as much pleasure as the plants. Last night I went out on a slug hunt and found 3 toads and a field mouse which would appear to be nesting under my shed.

[Jane the Novice]

[clairenpaul]

great isn't it - like a different place altogether :).

Beware of the mouse though - we had one (!!!) who ventured into the house and being a bit of a softy I fed it  and we ended up overun with them, spent weeks catching them and taking them to the woods for a LONG holiday ;D

[Marianne]

We had a field mouse in the house.  I got this friendly trap from my daughter and we caught the little thing overnight.  OH went to release it the other side of the road in the fields!  ;D

She was very very scared, poor little thing !  :'(

[Jane the Novice]

We've not had a mouse in the house yet...don't know where they would get in really. I hope one doesn't as I don't think I could bear to hurt it. :(

[Val]

They will get in, take my word for it, if there's a gap the size of a pencil, they'll get through it, come the cold weather and as sure as mice are yuk , they'll be there

[busy_lizzie]

Me too Jane.  My last ritual before I go upstairs for the night is to go round our garden with a torch and a blunt instrument.  This is to catch any slugs or snails out and  check out our frogs.  As you say it is like another world.  You see them all lounging about and sometimes I have counted as many as 12 frogs or toads out and about in my garden.  The cats and dog found a mouse in our television unit last winter.  We rescued it from that lovely warm dark place and took it a mile away and put it in a field, hopefully never to return to us.   :) busy_lizzie 

[Roy Bham UK]

We've not had a mouse in the house yet...don't know where they would get in really. I hope one doesn't as I don't think I could bear to hurt it. :(

If you have a loft mice love it up there especially if you have loft insulation ooh very snug not only mice but bats ,squirrels and birds and the bees will settle in nicely :o

We had a funny smell in our conservatory a few years ago that got worse and I finished up tearing a hole in the dry lining of the wall and discovered a rotting rat :o the hole on the outside of the building was the size of a 50 pence coin :o

[wardy]

We once got a mouse in our kitchen.  It got in via a tiny gap in the house wall from the garage where the central heating pipes went in from the boiler.  Our Jack Russell had a field day and practically trashed the kitchen.  We wondered what the hell was going on.  It was something like Tom and Jerry  ;D  The mouse took cover behind the dishwasher, the dog saw it and decided to try and dig out.  He tore a massive piece out of the vinyl flooring and was taking the place apart by the time we got there. 

He never settled to sleep in the kitchen again as he was constantly mouse hunting  :)

[Jane the Novice]

Thatmust have been fun to watch Wardy  :D :D. I'm sure if I went out looking tonight all I would find would be a few ducks as it has been raining since about 3pm

[DolphinGarden]

Last Thursday saw an otter in the canal opposite me. Wow, was so exciting. Swimming along on the surface moving along wafting from side to side. Looked like a ruddy snake!!!

[Jane the Novice]

Just been on my ritual nightly patrol. Tonight 1 toad and 1 mouse but I'm sure there will be some more later