Thursday 18 February 2016

Field Voles at Worthenbury


Quoted in the March edition of BBC Wildlife magazine!


Field vole - note the shortness of the tail


Above, excellent field vole habitat, and below, a latrine - each dropping is about the size of a grain of rice.


4 comments:

Simon Douglas Thompson said...

So so observant!

Kate said...

Thanks!

Le Pré de la Forge said...

Kate, are you sure that your pictured Field Vole is such...
what one can see of it appears very red...
and the tail looks quite long and is clearly dark above and light below with a dark tip...
have you got any other pix of it...
especially one that shows the ear[s]?
Red fur and a clearly divided tail are two of the indicators of Bank Vole.
The Field Vole tail is about as long as its head...
is darkish above the tail, paler below, less easily seen, lacks the dark tip...
and the fur isn't usually as red as this...
reddish, yes, in some...
more usually a dull grey brown.
That latrine shot is good... very fresh!!
And well done on the mention in BBC Wildlife.

Kate said...

You could be right. I thought that tail was much too short to be a bank vole, but you're right about the fur colour. I didn't know bank voles had dark tips to their tails. I'll ask around.