The creature

Today we were having a clear patch before five days of rain, just what we need---sorry Texas but we will send some. I decided to try a few more, okay a hundred perhaps, calendar pictures. The doodles got interested in the base of one of their favorite "maybe we can catch a squirrel" tree. This is one reason why taking "simple" calendar pictures is not so simple.

I investigated and found a creature motel. Inquiring snouts were busy at work trying to ferret out the critter. This guy was poking out of a hole, but around the root I saw another hole, perhaps the escape hatch. Vole, mole whatever, any guesses? He was a couple of inches at most I guess. Needless to say, in my attempt to remove doodles before they had the poor thing, who did not seem frightened,for lunch, and of course to document it for posterity, I hastily changed my camera from sport mode to the wrong setting. But for a change PhotoShop 9 and I made some nifty changes.Why, you can almost make it out! The doodles are on house arrest until I figure out some way to keep them from snacking on the creature. So one little adventure, no decent pictures, and merely one mosquito bite later here I am. All in all not such a productive session out there in the wilds : )

The tiny creature:

To give some perspective, the hole is about a foot up in the middle crevice with the possible escape route to the left:

Update: I live in northern NJ. Some of you are scaring me to death with foreign critters.

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Permalink Reply by Becka on September 21, 2011 at 1:59pm

Maybe this kind of shrew? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Least_Shrew

It has venomous saliva!

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Permalink Reply by Leslie and Halas on September 21, 2011 at 1:57pm

Here's a picture of a woodland vole. He's more brown than grey, but he does have a pink nose. Found it the northeast according to some random website.