Saturday 25 July 2015

Ragwort and Water Voles

 Commas

 Southern Hawker

 What looks like a vole-cut to me, and the plant was right next to a burrow and a feeding station.





It's clear, especially when you're doing The Big Butterfly Count, how much insects love ragwort. But I thought mammals avoided eating the fresh plant because it tasted nasty. However, this does look like water vole-gnawing to me (third photo down) as it was high up the stem, a slanted cut, and right next to a burrow and other feeding. I've never found ragwort in feed stations, so my guess is a water vole just gave this a try, thought it was horrible and gave up.

2 comments:

Ian Doyle said...

Super photos Kate. I thought about your blog the other day whilst visiting Brockholes near Preston. I was in a craft shop near the visitor centre when I saw a bottle of brown ale called Water Vole (http://fromthenotebook.co.uk/index.php/component/k2/water-vole).

Kate said...

Oh, top notch!!