Ginger mice?

[Headfry]

Whilst moving some heaps of garden waste three little ginger coloured mice ran out. They were beautiful, shortish tails so not doormice...any ideas what they were? Thought I had seem most types of mice, but have never seen ginger mice before.

[Grandpadragon]

Did you have your Ginger tinted glasses on , you know the ones like rose tinted

[Headfry]

mice

I think they are harvest mice...though they say these are very very small, the ones I say were average mouse sized!

[shirlthegirl43]

Might they be field mice - think they are bigger?

[roitelet]

They could be thngs that out here are called mulot which are in fact field mice but very small ones.

[la cebolla grande]

Harvest mice are TINY, and have very long tails. Yellow-necked Field Mice are like Wood Mice, but very gingery.

They are also quite agressive if handled.

When we get non-House Mice indoors we tend to assume they are Wood Mice, but Field Mice can be hard to tell apart.

Su

[Headfry]

oh dear, confused.com
they were the quite big for a mouse, made more so by the fact that when they ran away they seemed to be very low to the ground and this made them look flat and broad.
They were distinctly ginger in colour.
Any one have a www address for viewing native mice? did a google yesterday but got mice forums and junk...got mad and gave up.
what does a wood mouse look like?

[shirlthegirl43]

Wood mice

wood mouse - Google Image Search

Field mice

field mouse - Google Image Search

Harvest mice

harvest mouse - Google Image Search

Hope that helps.

[la cebolla grande]

Low to the ground, flat and broad and shortish tails, ginger colouring.

Not a Mouse at all.

Try VOLE (we have loads living in and around compost heap on lottie). Can never remember which is which (we have Bank and Field) one has shortish tail, the other virtually none (so you can't tell if they are running forwards or backwards!!). I'm guessing with tails they are FIELD VOLES

LCG ;-))

[Headfry]

Yes..... tails...I did not notice their tails at all, so must have been short!
Do voles come in XL sizes? thought they were all size 0

[SueA]

Are you sure they weren't someones escaped hamsters Headfry?!
Here's a link to a bit about bank voles & field voles.
BBC - Science & Nature - Wildfacts - Bank vole
Field Vole

[Headfry]

Deff not bank voles, hamsters- lol
I almost posted that they looked more like hamsters, but thought I would get odd replies!!!! similar colour though.
need to go looking for them again. They had made nests of grass and odd bits of carpet fibers- so very sweet. I feel quite guilty for trashing their homes.

[smallblueplanet]

Shrew?

Shrew

[la cebolla grande]

Shrews are small (or very small) black and with obvious long snouts. Voles are pretty chunky - certainly significantly bigger than mice.

LCG

[smallblueplanet]

I knew they are small lcg, but the one on the link I posted is a light brown colour?