CSI Millbrook: Death on the Boardwalk!

It was a very strange morning at Millbrook - a morning of intrigue and murder - and all we lacked was the yellow crime scene tape. The boardwalk was littered with bodies - well, there WERE two of them - but there was no sign of the murderer in sight.

We attempted to render aid, but alas, the creatures were well past helping. Both moles had been long dead before we came upon them. And so no aid was possible. All that was left was to say a short prayer for the faithful departed, and to commend their bodies to their Maker.

So it was that we came upon the bodies of two deceased star-nosed moles at Millbrook, on a crisp and sunny Friday morning. I truly doubted the moles crawled up onto the boardwalk themselves and had heart attacks there, under the open sky.

They didn't have a scratch on them, but I presumed it was the work of some predator: a feral cat, perhaps, playing some cruel game of whack-a-mole that turned fatal. The heart shivers at the thought.

And so we documented the scene, as is our habit, and said a few kind words, and went on our way. No death - no matter how small - goes unnoticed, unremarked. I am always trying to learn more about the critters we discover at the marsh. So upon returning to my computer, I looked up the star-nosed mole.

Per Wikipedia, "The star-nosed mole is easily identified by the twenty-two pink fleshy appendages ringing its snout, which is used as a touch organ with more than 25,000 minute sensory receptors, known as Eimer's organs, with which this hamster-sized mole feels its way around. With the help of its Eimer's organs, it may be perfectly poised to detect seismic wave vibrations."

Wow! Who knew? You can see the detail of the pink appendages around its snout in the extra photo. And here's a short video that shares more interesting information about these creatures.

The tune to accompany this sad scene is a classic country song about a murderer. Here's Johnny Cash, with Folsom Prison Blues.