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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jos Stratford" data-source="post: 3288618" data-attributes="member: 12449">Nearing the Home Run, 25-27 September.A mere two species short of the Holy Grail, the grand 50th species in the Baltic States.I was starting to scrap the barrow however, not many easy ones left ...perhaps I could manage a Fallow Deer somewhere, maybe a House Mouse in Vilnius city,  then what other possibilities? Scrutinizing the list, possibles included Black Rat (rare, maybe in Moletai), both Common and Pygmy Shrew (widespread, but I seem hopeless at catching or seeing these), Root Vole and Harvest Mouse (best chances are in the Nemunas Delta) and Muskrat (declining and localised).Well, needed to keep my act into order, so decided a mini trip tot he Nemunas Delta would be a good idea - Fallow Deer exists in Kintai forest, Muskrat in Kintai fish pools and live trapping at the edge of reedbeds in the delta had possibility to produce Root Vole or Harvest Mouse (or even one of the shrews) ...a potential four or more species!So, how did it go? After a late afternoon departure, I drove the required 300 km and got there just in time to set my five traps at strategic points near Rusne, flights of Cranes yodelled in the sunset, flocks of geese passed overhead, a couple of Roe Deer sauntered through meadows. Time would now tell where the rodents would play ball! Meanwhile, 20 km to the west, now truly dark, I began exploration of Kintai Forest, spotlight flashing either side. Not a hint of a Fallow Deer (or anything else) for over two hours, woodland and adjacent meadow equally drawing a blank. Began to think a dawn trip would be a better idea when suddenly two animals emerged onto the track directly in front of me ...10.20 p.m., mother and calf Fallow Deer, nice!Kipped in the car, then met local birder Boris Belchev at dawn for a Muskrat stake-out ...nobody told the Muskrats, they didn't make the rendezvous! Still, a couple of distant Beavers paddling down a drainage channel got me excited for a few moments, wrongly jumping to the conclusion that they were Muskrats ...but na, no vertical tails, very Beaver-esque heads, they were not the desired ones! Back at the Rusne traps, results were also far from stunning ...one empty trap, next empty too, next triggered but not occupied, the next empty. Just one left ...and indeed there crouched a vole in the compartment. Maybe a Root Vole? Nope, a Bank Vole instead, a widespread species that I have caught countless times this year.So, of the potential four species, one successfully seen, the year list advances to 49! 49. Fallow Deer..</blockquote>

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