I disturbed a family of mice while placing posts for a fence. The nest was right beside where I needed to dig the hole for the post, and I saw one of the adults run away as I was clearing the vegetation, and then saw a couple of babies crawl out of the nest. They hadn't opened their eyes or grown fur yet and it was a cold, damp night, so I wrapped them in some polyester stuffing out of an old pillow to keep them warm (I use the stuff for filtering my aquariums) and gently put them back in the nest, where another couple of babies were lying. A pair of adults came back to the nest to retrieve the babies and move them somewhere else, and I watched them make dozens of trips back to the nest while I was crouching just a couple of feet away with a head torch illuminating the area.
Once the babies had been evacuated, I dug the hole for the post and concreted it into position. I left the pillow stuffing to give them some dry, warm bedding for their new nest.
