Wildlife photographer constructs tiny village for family of mice living in garden

Picture this, you’re outside enjoying a cup of coffee looking at all the flowers blooming in your garden when all of a sudden you see something scurry into the flowerbed. Maybe it was too early in the morning and you were seeing things, but you see it again.

What was it? Finally, you get a closer look. It’s a mouse.

While your first instinct might be to run for some type of trap–you don’t want that tiny creature coming into your home–wildlife photographer Simon Dell’s initial reaction was to focus his camera on his little visitor.

“I was out one day just taking photos of the birds in the garden and having just cut the grass I noticed something moving on the ground,” Dell told Bored Panda. “I pointed my camera at the ground and was shocked but very happy to see a very cute little house mouse standing up just like a meerkat in the fresh cut grass.”

After realizing the field mouse was curious enough to stay still for a few photos, Dell, who is from Sheffield, United Kingdom, got an idea. He would build an adorably small shelter for the mouse.

“At first there was just the one mouse. He had a cut in his ear, and we called him George,” he said. “I piled some small logs around a box as a home for the mouse and covered it with moss and straw to give him a little shelter.”

Dell said that in addition to the home creating an interesting photo prop, it gave the mouse a sense of safety from his cats.

It wasn’t long before he realized that his little log pile was the home to not just one, but several mice.

“A couple of days later, I noticed there could be more than one mouse inside the log pile, and it was not long ’till they both came out for a bit of food.”

Dell typically gives the mice nuts and berries that he collects from a nature reserve.

Over the course of several days, Dell expanded the tiny mouse village to accommodate the growing population. The wildlife photographer even winterized it for his tiny neighbors, “giving the mice the best chance possible to survive.”

All the while, the mice have provided Dell with scenes straight from a movie.

Pass this article on if you can’t get enough of this adorable mouse village.