Thursday 15 May 2014

To the Tune of Van Morrison's 'Brown-Eyed Girl'











I found out a couple of things about my one-eyed vole tonight: firstly, I'm guessing she is female as I saw her topping up a large latrine. Males do make latrines, but not so many and only small ones.

And secondly, she is queen of the castle. She ran off another two-eyed vole with ease, and the intruder was almost deferential. 

A total of four water voles appeared during this session.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Back from my Water Vole course, I asked about the latrines, and the two experts had not encountered that kind of behaviour before either. One wondered whether it might have been droppings deposited on some vegetation in the river which then sank, taking the droppings with it? Otherwise, the mystery continues...
Course was super, and I now feel able to spot wv signs along the river. No wvs themselves though today, so it is lovely to see yours :-)

Kate said...

That's an interesting suggestion, but I've no evidence of that. So glad you enjoyed the course - now you are a qualified voler you can get out on your own and you stand much more chance of seeing them.