Once every few weeks I give all the bird feeders and bird table a good clean with water and weak bleach solution to make sure there is no possible spread of disease amongst the feeding birds, after the news today regarding the case of avian flu in Yorkshire I may do this more often.

Yesterday after I had cleaned the feeders and allowed then to dry I filled them and hung them up again I heard a rustle in the ivy expecting to see one of the many house sparrows I was surprised to see a very damp looking woodmouse which had climbed  the ivy and was now eye level to me, I was not surprised to see the mouse as it and three others had been regular visitors to the bird feeders, I was surprised to see it as I had managed to catch three and release them in the fields and had not seen any for a while, now whilst I could quite happily live with woodmice in the garden, my wife said she could live with one maybe two and as we had seen four on the peanuts in one session of feeding themselves we decide to reduce our garden population.

I was fascinated by how bold they were climbing up the ivy, then the honeysuckle to go from branch to feeder.

When I cut the honeysuckle back they started climbing the centre pole of the feeder to get to the feeders which hung from arms at the top, some would get about 4 feet from the ground fall off and climb back up,  I even found one had got into the feeder via the very small opening for the birds to get the seed.

A larger mammal we had seen in September at RSPB Titchwell in North Norfolk was a Chinese water deer, it’s size is between a Muntjac and Roe deer, and 10% of the World’s population is in the UK, mainly in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, after escaping from Whipsnade Zoo in 1929 the quickly adapted to  living in the British countryside.

So really it was a surprise to see one as bold as brass walking across the salt marsh feeding on the plants, they seem to love the wet habitat of the Cambridgeshire Fens and Norfolk Broads and like the woodmice in our garden I am happy to live with them in our countryside, although others may not.