number four

As expected, this morning's mouse was a young'un. He'd previously walked in and out of the trap without triggering it, so I fiddled with the trigger sensitivity, and we got him this time. Of course, mice have litters, so there are probably more young yet to be caught, even if we've gotten all the adults, which is not certain. This one's coloring was a little different, with gray on the back and brown on the sides, versus the brown back and sides of the previous lot.

We've been releasing the mice about two miles away, with a couple swamps in between. It doesn't quite meet lisajulie's rule of one watershed or three major automobile arteries, so I'm hoping they don't find their way back. It occurs to me that the young'un may well be from the nest-in-a-bag (a mother and at least two babies in a mostly empty grain sack) that I put out in the brush pile at the back of our property last month. That was clearly not far enough.