Mouse ID needed, Poland (1 Viewer)

[mikus]

Can anyone offer any help with the ID of this mouse, photographed a couple of weeks back by the side of a canal in the North of Poland?

 

[opisska]

Apodemus, either wood mouse or yellow-necked mouse. It looks weird, in my experience those are typically juveniles.

 

[Farnboro John]

Agree juvenile woody.

John

 

[mikus]

Thank you guys!
Are you absolutely sure though? Aren't the eyes and ears a bit on the smallish side for Yellow-necked / Wood and more fitting for, say, House Mouse (paler, yellowish variants of which also do occur)?

 

[Farnboro John]

Thank you guys!
Are you absolutely sure though? Aren't the eyes and ears a bit on the smallish side for Yellow-necked / Wood and more fitting for, say, House Mouse (paler, yellowish variants of which also do occur)?

Contrasting white underparts rule out House Mouse which is essentially concolorous.

John

 

[mikus]

Contrasting white underparts rule out House Mouse which is essentially concolorous.

Right enough, my bad!
But then (sorry for being a pain and for only posting in the thread which I myself had started every few days - I've had a bit too much on my plate lately) what would make you go for Wood and so rule out Yellow-necked?

 

[Farnboro John]

Right enough, my bad!
But then (sorry for being a pain and for only posting in the thread which I myself had started every few days - I've had a bit too much on my plate lately) what would make you go for Wood and so rule out Yellow-necked?

I'm probably stretching a bit here but in Britain at least Yellow-necked is a very bright animal with a distinct orangey tint to the upperpart fur while Wood Mouse is more of a dull yellowish-brown which is what I see in your photos. But I would prefer a look at the underparts, obviously.

John