Rodent guesses?

[telophase]

Opened the blinds for the window that looks out on the bird feeders and surprised a couple of white-wing doves and a rodent of some ilk rummaging about the ground through the sunflower seed shells. The doves were walking around the ground near to the rodent, so I am reasonably sure of its size--rather rat-like in size, and that generic brownish rodent-y color. I *think* its ears were rounded. Its tail was the odd bit--it was short. I did not get a good enough look to see if it was naked or hairy, but it was definitely short. My current theory is that it's a common rat with half a tail, but in case I don't know of things that look ratlike but have short tails, any guesses?

We do live near large fields, with construction happening and tearing up habitat, so field rodents could easily come up into this area.

I sort of hope this encourages the hawks.

Comments

[sophisted]

I'm guessing some variation of the pocket gopher.

[telophase]

Interesting! Thanks! I don't recall it's mouth looking like that, but OTOH it was aware of me and moving around behind bushes to hide from me whenever I moved so I didn't get a good look at it.

I was thinking it could also be a prairie vole, after a guess by someone on LJ, which is also about the same size and tail-length.

[chomiji]

Maybe a vole of some kind? Apparently there are a couple of species in your area.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it could be a prairie vole (http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/EndangeredResources/SpeciesPhotos.asp?SpecCode=AMAFF11140&PhotoNum=23585). That looks a lot like it. I'll see what I can dig up about its range and habitat. Thanks!

[riofriotex.livejournal.com]

Doesn't look like we have prairie voles in the area. I'm thinking maybe a mole?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_%28animal%29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_%28animal%29)
http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/scalaqua.htm (http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/scalaqua.htm)

Note the short tail, and I can tell you from the damage in my yard, we've definitely got them here.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not thinking moles--I could see its eyes and its face looked ratlike with larger eyes than moles, and it was holding sunflower seeds like rats do. Perhaps a pine vole (http://www.volecontrol.com/pine_vole.html)? Their range appears to cover North Texas.

[riofriotex.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm betting that's what we have too! Thanks for the link!