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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Farnboro John" data-source="post: 1705059" data-attributes="member: 36432">Sunday was predicted to dawn bright and sunny, with only light winds, and it was definitely time for a day out.  I ultimately had a good day but created a possible entry for Prat of the Year in the process.An earlier phone call to Mark meant that his place was the start point for the day, with Harvest Mouse release and photo session on the agenda for 0900.  I arrived (having already seen Red Fox, Grey Squirrel and Rabbit), to find a vaguely familiar face emerging from a car, a chap called Derek, from Guildford.  I must have seen him out locally in the past.  Anyway, we headed for Mark's front door and, realising that they weren't round my neck, I decided I should get my camera and bins from the car.  Halfway to it I stopped abruptly.  I couldn't remember picking up my bins at home.  A moment's consideration confirmed this was because I hadn't. Oh dear (you will realise this is not actually what I thought).I got my camera (short lens, the new monster not appropriate to rodent release) and Mark opened the door to hear of my fundamental error.  I have done this before, the last time I remember being 25 years ago.  He invited us in, we had the inevitable cup of tea (I was very grateful for its calming influence) and met both the prisoner for relase and its captor.  Lets hear it for Molly, the psychologically disturbed self-harming rodent-preserving cat, without whom the event would not have taken place.I'm going to jump ahead for a minute here.  Mark immediately offered me one of his spare pairs of bins for the day and I very gratefully accepted: I had thought I would just have to look through the camera all day but that would be very limiting due to both depth of field and field of view issues.  Just after we had completed the Harvest Mouse release I thought I should fill the car up next, at which point I discovered I had also left my wallet at home.  Mark promptly found his and lent me twenty quid to allow my day to continue, without a second thought.  I've said this before but it bears repeating: Mark Hows is a top bloke in every respect and I am proud to call him friend.  Another tip for prospective mammal-watchers (or newbie birders): be organised!Back to the mouse.  Mark's bungalow has a cracking wildlife friendly garden at the back with fields behind his back hedge.  A huge array of feeders was under attack from an assortment of passerines and several tree branches were weighted down with Woodpigeons.  We downed the tea and took the fat, healthy looking Harvest Mouse in its travelling box out to the field next door, probably where it came from.  Mark pointed out a Brown Hare two fields over, plus a fine array of mole hills.Mark managed after some effort to get the mouse out for in-the-hand pix.  I took a couple but I already had a load from last November.  While Derek was filling his boots I found a substantial nettle stem that looked ideal for putting the mouse on: the top was even in the near-horizontal sunlight.  After the mouse had been rested from its initial photo-shoot (not to mention Mark's thumb, which was leaking red stuff from the effects of the feisty creature's incisors) he took it out again and put it on the stem, pointing upwards.  It ran to the top and spent FIVE MINUTES clambering about, lashing its prehensile tail about stems, swinging like Tarzan and generally behaving like a born movie-star. My camera was rattling like a machine gun following its antics and the pix will be on here as soon as I can manage it.  A corking session with a beautiful and cute animal.After Mark had sorted out my equipment shortages I set off for Weeting Heath after Stoat.  Richie Moores reckons partial ermines are frequent there and after the last couple of weeks one might hope one might be about.....  I should point out that the reserve is closed in winter and all you can do is view the north side of the road from the closed gateway to the car park.I did find a Stoat running about investigating all the rabbit holes and watched it on and off for about an hour.  It was a normal coloured Stoat but I am not going to complain about that, even though Steve D has just gripped me by text with a partial ermine in Norfolk over the weekend.  I got a few distant pix but nothing to write home about.Suddenly squawks from the woodland edge to the West drew my attention to what I assumed was a Sparrowhawk until I realised the desperately flailing forms it was hotly pursuing were Jays - the accipiter was twice the size and very obviously a Goshawk!It was still after them as they disappeared into very thick pine/spruce/fir branches but the continuation of angry screeches suggested they got away safely.The Stoat had been missing for about twenty minutes by then, so I carried on with a swing across the fens to Welney, where I couldn't afford entrance but found a few groups of Whoopers in the fields for a year-tick.  By then it was 1300 so I set course for Fowlmere RSPB to finish the day off.I couldn't find any small mammals at all at Fowlmere, but there were four winter-coated Fallow Deer in the paddocks that grazed their way into the open to be photographed, and at last light I found a Muntjac grazing at the edge of a field.  Unfortunately a family came along the footpath bordering the field and flushed it into the woodland after I had only had a minute's view.A fairly decent run saw me home by 1845.John</blockquote>

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