Postdiluvian Mole

As most of readers of Sparking Squirrel know, the Mister braved a great flood here while I was away last week. This evening, a misplaced mole was desperately trying to burrow into the concrete around our basement door (and, I might add, have surprising success at moving chunks of concrete I didn't know were loose, if still failing). I transported him (or her) to more friable ground as the Mister took photos before it disappeared into the earth. Fortuitously, the Mister captured the essential identifying trait of this mole, the hairy tail. As most moles have hairless, pink, rat-like tails, we knew immediately (okay, after flipping through Mammals of North America) that it was a Hairy-Tailed Mole (Parascalops breweri).

Two scoriomorphs in one month! I may be following the year of the rodent with the year of the lucky insectivore.