Fabulous photos Kate, nicely captured. I didn't get to vole watch during my 30 Days Wild Challenge but I'm not giving up and hope to go out vole watching sometime soon.
Lovely to see these, many thanks - especially as my water voles have been so elusive in recent weeks... Lots of sitting and waiting, late afternoon today and yesterday, to no avail, not even a rustle nor a ripple... Some wonderful dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies about though - plus, a real treat of a green woodpeckers' family outing! They were flitting to and fro between the trees and 'yaffling' a fair bit, though the young ones didn't seem to have quite got the hang of that yet..
Thanks also for the rats info - fairly reassuring, and I'm hoping that they won't be a problem (and I've only twice seen the one individual, so far). Someone was trying to tell me that rats will go into the vole holes looking for the babies... (the same person however told me "water voles are omnivores", and said they "eat worms" etc..!)
There are occasional instances of water voles eating fish and possibly snails, but normally they're plain vegetarian. Rats will take baby voles, I'm afraid, but not in the clearing-out way mink will. I'm not getting many sightings either and can't see many latrines, which is worrying. I'll see what the next week reveals. There's definitely feeding going on, at least.
I've only ever glimpsed green woodpeckers, so I'm very envious!
Hi - yes, I did fear that rats going into holes to take baby voles could well be true... I can't really see the latrines here, the activity is almost all on the far bank of the ditch - I did find one once with binoculars though. Some of the holes here do look to be "in use", kind of wet and shiny at the base, as though the voles are still slipping in and out of there (just not when I'm watching!) Other holes look dried out and abandoned.. Sightings tailed off very much this time last year too - I suspect one reason could be that the main activity is early a.m. then late evening, just before dusk.
Hope you also get some good sightings again soon..
Fabulous photos Kate, nicely captured. I didn't get to vole watch during my 30 Days Wild Challenge but I'm not giving up and hope to go out vole watching sometime soon.
ReplyDeleteLovely to see these, many thanks - especially as my water voles have been so elusive in recent weeks... Lots of sitting and waiting, late afternoon today and yesterday, to no avail, not even a rustle nor a ripple... Some wonderful dragonflies, damselflies and butterflies about though - plus, a real treat of a green woodpeckers' family outing! They were flitting to and fro between the trees and 'yaffling' a fair bit, though the young ones didn't seem to have quite got the hang of that yet..
ReplyDeleteThanks also for the rats info - fairly reassuring, and I'm hoping that they won't be a problem (and I've only twice seen the one individual, so far). Someone was trying to tell me that rats will go into the vole holes looking for the babies... (the same person however told me "water voles are omnivores", and said they "eat worms" etc..!)
There are occasional instances of water voles eating fish and possibly snails, but normally they're plain vegetarian. Rats will take baby voles, I'm afraid, but not in the clearing-out way mink will. I'm not getting many sightings either and can't see many latrines, which is worrying. I'll see what the next week reveals. There's definitely feeding going on, at least.
ReplyDeleteI've only ever glimpsed green woodpeckers, so I'm very envious!
Hi - yes, I did fear that rats going into holes to take baby voles could well be true...
ReplyDeleteI can't really see the latrines here, the activity is almost all on the far bank of the ditch - I did find one once with binoculars though. Some of the holes here do look to be "in use", kind of wet and shiny at the base, as though the voles are still slipping in and out of there (just not when I'm watching!) Other holes look dried out and abandoned.. Sightings tailed off very much this time last year too - I suspect one reason could be that the main activity is early a.m. then late evening, just before dusk.
Hope you also get some good sightings again soon..