The tit and the wood mouse

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/06/brave-wood-mouse

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Head dipped in shining black oil and marinated in nervousness, a marsh tit has started coming to the feeder for the first time since last winter. Until now it would have been in the wet beech and ash woods that cover the steep north face of the chalk down; an example of the anciently named “hangers” so beloved of Gilbert White.

But in this corner of the downs a cold snap has brought the marsh tit to the closely wired nuts hanging from the wall of the stone smokehouse.

Skittish and brief at the best of times, its feeding visits have already been interrupted. Reduced to waiting and watching – wings twitching – from a nearby oak, the tit is rightly indignant that a wood mouse, seemingly spewed from a gap in the wall, has appeared on the feeder.

Related: Field mouse cracks the nut puzzle

This is, after all, the bird’s especial territory; its bill so petitely perfect for this particular task of extraction. Brave, then, the creature without such instruments that tries to pluck the nut from between the wires. But brave this wood mouse is.

For a good many minutes it works the end of one nut, shaving it enough that the weight of the nuts above pushes it a little further out into the open. The mouse constantly shifts position to present its mouth to the wire in such a way that it can get purchase on another section.

Occasionally, a paw is brought into play, pushing the nut partially back in while rotating it. Thus, the frustrating nobble that lately prevented its extraction is presented ready to be worked in the same way.

This desperate carpentry continues until the wood mouse slides clear its prize. Driven by the approaching winter it will soon be looking for permanent lodgings alongside us, and I’ll begin to find this mouse and others – including the diminutive shrew – in the fringes of the house and outbuildings, the smokehouse a perennial favourite.

But for now it’s a simple case of foraging, and the moment it returns to its hollow in the wall the marsh tit flies quickly back to the feeder.