Winter Mice Works

    There are a lot of mice that call the Robson Valley, “Home”.  Like most people I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them unless we get one in our house, but they are always out there doing their thing, even in the winter.  Then they spend their time living and working away under the snow.  

    When the snow melts, if you look around, you can see what they were up to.  The photo above shows that some of them were making meals out of Aspen bark.  When they weren’t eating, they spent time making a web of tunnels under the snow.  The photo below shows one of the warrens they constructed.

    Mice are an extremely important part of the food chain for a lot of animals, especially during the winter.  I was fortunate late one afternoon to watch a Great Gray Owl swoop down to the snow, then carefully listen, then pounce, digging its claws into the snow to capture and eat a mouse that was working under the snow.  Mice are always a vital food for coyotes.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca