Our little Iggy Tubby is an excellent mouser, and has killed two and mauled a third so far since the influx. My house is devoid of cats at the moment, and that situation has to be fixed some day. The chipmunks are out in full force now raiding the nut trees and oaks, and the poor dog is going bonkers since he is hard-wired to hunt rodents. He forgets to do his potty thing, after fighting him on his lead and bringing him in, then remembers shortly after returning to the house he has to go. Our old Schnauzer Fritz was also a decent mouser, as expected. It was hard-wired into him as well. One night we heard a commotion and he and the siamese/tabby were on the floor facing each other with a mouse between them, and I think the dog and cat were so so intent on not letting the other have the mouse that the mouse got away that time. Fall is also spider influx time. Snake influx time is over and this year I only had to remove one five foot rat snake from our foyer. My DH doesn't 'do' snakes and I won't let him dispatch them, so of course that meant I had to pick the serpent up by the tail and toss it out the front door. No bats inside yet. No toads this year or newts. A couple of shrews, several wrens and a hummer. The most bizarre of the inside animal sightings were two young birds inside my towel drawer next to the kitchen fireplace, and a duck on the hearth of the living room fireplace. A ring-neck snake again in the foyer and one year about a hundred tiny toads or frogs on the kitchen floor next to the back door some of whom were floating in the dog's water dish. My son has that one beat however. He came into his kitchen to find a hereford calf in his kitchen who had managed to get up his back steps, through his back door and was looking for humans as it was time to get his bottle. Cows can't climb down steps because of the way their leg joints are, so she had to be carried out. LOL.

Hi scottspond, some how didn't think she would, Florida vs Manchester, no contest really ;-) The area I live in is New Mills, in High Peak in Derbyhsire. If it doesn't ring a bell, it's just past Lyme park, Buxton is about 2 miles away, Stockport 9 miles and Manchester 20 miles (all via road) Handily the railway station is about 5 mins away from my home, so trips to Manchester are pleasent through the countyside and don't require I use the car ;-) And in summer I get to hop on the odd steam trian, every boys dream. My Mancunian mates reckon I've gone "all posh" living here, as I was born and grew up in Fallowfield and went to school in Rusholme. Regards ChrisC.

Wow, Scott...these pictures are wonderful! What beautiful little guys! I have never seen any in the wild at all, and would be thrilled to find them. Another critter I need to learn to hunt for. Thanks so much for sharing these terrific photos! I could learn to love these guys! Marcia

It's now time for the Great Easter Newt Hunt. I tried to start a new thread but it hasn't appeared, so I'm putting it here. http://www.newthunt.org/ Here is a link that might be useful: Details of newt survey