Water Voles

Following up on my previous Vole encounter , i tried again , equipped with an apple and camera i settled down to try an get some eye level images of these energetic mammals.

Rule 1 when sitting and waiting – Check out what your sat on , as last time i sat on a Red Ants nest ! the little red sods get everywhere . So this time after checking around i settled down to wait with a half apple at the base of the reeds opposite. Surprisingly it took only twenty minutes for a large adult to turn up and then promptly pick up the apple and shoot off .

I resorted to plan B and only had to wait about another hour before two younger voles turned up and stayed around for a bit , before disappearing with a plop when a large brown rat ambled past.

Back a few weeks ago while watching these voles another aquatic mammal turned up – a water shrew , first time i’d ever seen one , it was a bit dark but i managed to get a quick shot of it parting the duckweed and peering into the reen.