Water Vole – Welsh Wild Stuff

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.

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September 15, 2014September 15, 2014 by timpad Categories: UncategorizedTags: Water Vole 6 Comments

Earlier this year , around may , i’d tried to photograph Water Voles with no luck . Last month i tried again with better results , it taken quite a few outings to get to understand some of their behaviour , Starting with watching them munching through apples on floating rafts , then looking for areas that had some light at a particular time of day and then getting the voles to appear at that spot .

I wanted to try to see them in a more natural environment and with a bit of patience found an area where i could get closer to water level and their level.

One day i had put half an apple in the shallow water opposite where i was positioned , it sank under the duck weed out of sight ,i thought that it was wasted, but the vole still found it , its sense of smell must be amazing ! you can also see them become aware of you if the wind changes and blows off you onto them ,they normally retreat into the reeds.

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