My neighbour Georgina  knocked on the door yesterday to say she had found a shrew running around on the grass near her house.

Well it was already tame! Or at least it showed no fear or awareness of us as we watched it running around foraging in broad daylight on the lawn within inches of us, although it did appear to have some damaged to its right eye. It found a dried-out earthworm in the grass and devoured it in front of us.  

Common Shrew Photo: Georgina Tanner

At first we thought it could have been a pygmy shrew Sorex minutus as it was only about 4cm long, but on closer examination it was concluded that due to the ratio of the tail to body length that it was actually a young common shrew Sorex araneus. Pygmy shrews although smaller than commons have a longer tail to body ratio being over 50% of body length. They are generally darker in colour too.

Common shrew and Pygmy shrew for comparison.
Courtesy of Derbyshire Mammal Group http://www.derbyshiremammalgroup.com

In this rather poorly focused photo above you can see the tail to body ratio of our shrew quite clearly. Later another two or three were seen running around the grass and walls, my guess is that they were from a recently weaned litter or a disturbed nest. 

Another one Georgina’s interesting finds was a dead male common lizard, on the path, again not far from her house. This a good record, as although I have always thought they should be around here as the habitat is suitable, I have never actually seen one in or near the village before. This one is unfortunately a bit mangled!

Common Lizard Photo:Georgina Tanner