SLB #2 Revived: Upwardly Mobile Tree Mouse
The cache is the 2nd of a 10-cache series circuiting through some fine countryside to the west of Burley-in-Wharfedale. For background info on the series, including a map (also provided in this cache's Gallery) and parking waypoints see GC7E48T SLB#1: What a Tip!.
It is a replacement for an earlier cache with the same name GC8V8BT placed on 18/6/20 which had 27 finds which had to be archived on 1/7/21 after repeatedly going missing. Hopefully, this location will prove more secure . . .
On the way along the shady lane to the cache location, this common but often overlooked little bird was spotted as it characteristically crept its way up a tree on the edge of the Reserve.
Some key facts:
1. The (Eurasian or Common) Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) has many regional names but its Somerset name, tree mouse, is most appropriate, as it creeps up trees like a mouse.
2. Unlike a nuthatch, it always goes up trees - never down - and when it reaches the top it flies down to the foot of the next tree.
3. Though preferring woodland, it wanders into orchards and gardens.
4. It is almost entirely insectivorous, mostly eating spiders and other small insects but in winter it make take small seeds.
5. Its very slender, slightly decurved and sharply pointed beak is ideally adapted for finding insects in bark crevices.
6. Its slender long curved sharp claws and its tail are key to its tree climbing. The 12 tail feathers are stiffened with robust shafts that project at the tip.
7. It is found throughout the country wherever there are trees - so is not seen in the Fens, Outer Hebrides, and treeless moorland and mountains. It stays in its own small territory sometime sticking to a single tree!
8. There are 9 treecreeper species worldwide. The one found here is the most widely distributed and found as far east as Japan. Of 12 sub-species this one is C.f.brittanica.
9. Its nest - an untidy collection of twigs, pine needles, moss and wood chips, lined with feathers, hair and even spiders’ webs - is usually built between the trunk of a tree and a piece of loose bark, but it will readily adopt a suitable nest box.
10. Breeding starts in April and the usual clutch is 5-6 white eggs with fine red spotting. Only the female incubates the eggs. Both sexes feed the young, which leave the nest 14-21 days after hatching. They depend on their parents for another 11-17 days.
11. In Britain most pairs only attempt to raise one brood, but a second brood is not unusual. After breeding
it often join tit flocks, with which they will remain throughout the winter.
12. It seldom moves far from where it hatched, but northern populations migrate south in the winter.
See short videos here and here and hear its quiet 'srrree' call here.