Photographer Simon Dell found a mouse in his backyard while he was taking photos of birds.

It all happened when he saw something crawling on the ground and focused his camera toward the moving object to find out that there was a cute little mouse standing up in the grass.

But if you think he tried to catch or kill the poor buddy you are very, very wrong!

Instead of getting rid of it, Dell constructed a tiny village where his new little fellow could live his happy mouse life. And the best part of all is this provided Dell with the opportunity to take amazing pictures you could see down below.

When Dell saw the mouse in his yard he rushed into the house and came back with a few peanuts for his new little buddy. After a couple of minutes, the mouse came out again searching for more food. It was exactly then when Dell decided he wanted to build a safe shelter for the little fellow where he could hide.

“I decided to build them a home as I wanted to give them a safe place in the garden and not fall prey to cats or other animals. Also, as I was feeding the mice it was the right thing to do as I would feel it was my fault getting them to come out if they became prey. Being a wildlife photographer, I wanted to create a nice looking habitat for any pictures I would take.” Dell explained to BoredPanda.

At first, there was only one mouse he called George. So to build the improvised house for him Simon gathered a bunch of tiny logs and put them around a box then covered everything with moss and straw and it all started looking like a shelter where the little creature could hide from the cats who were sitting at the other side of the fence.

“I then put up some wire fencing along the fence so there was no way the cats could get to the mouse. I also have a small Jack Russell Terrier dog so the cats know not to come in the garden and the dog pays the mice no attention,” explained Dell.

After a couple of days, Simon Dell found out his little fellow had a companion inside the log pile.

Pretty soon the two mice came out to have something to eat.

According to Dell the first step of making the log pile was not hard at all and he finished in about an hour. Next days since more mice came to the improvised shelter, Dell joined more structures to it. The structure now possesses 2-3 ways out so that the mice could go in or out when they need to.

Dell even adapted the construction for the winter by adding additional space to it which would assure that the mice would survive during the cold months.

“I have counted around 5 or more mice and the female, Mildred, is looking very pregnant so hoping we will have a large litter of baby mice around Christmas. Knowing mice can have up to 14 babies, I could be building many more log pile rooms. But I have space and don’t mind living alongside such cute and very photogenic little critters.” he added.



Dell usually feeds them with natural food like berries, nuts, and fruits that grow in the area. He also gives them the same seeds he feeds the birds with plus sunflower seeds, hazel or walnuts.

He mentions that he could spoil them with some dry mealworms and suet pellets from time to time…

….but healthy food is predominant in their menu.

Dell also said that apart from George and the growing mice family in

his garden live all kinds of birds like starlings, house sparrows, blackbirds, robins… and even a grey heron. Also, a fox who would come to visit his yard at night and there also live hedgehogs and squirrels.

And this is not all! It turns out that although George inspired Dell to build the tiny mouse village he is not the first mouse that Simon has housed or photographed in his yard.

“I had a bit of experience taking photos of wildlife and mice as I also had another mouse that used to live in my garden shed and only come out after dark. He was a wood mouse and we named him Stuart.”

Sadly Stuart left in the spring of 2018, probably to look for a mate. Yet Simon hopes he will come back in the winter to meet many new mice fellows in the tiny mice village in his garden.

Source: The Photography of Simon Dell | George the Mouse in a log pile house