A Tale of Two Voles

 'Where is he? I want to go out but I don't want to leave my pups behind in the burrow.'

'Here I am. Sorry, love, I've been feasting on pollen for the protein.'

 'Right, I'm home.'

 'My turn to go out now!'

Some blocked-up burrows.

Apologies: I don't normally go in for anthropomorphism, but it seemed to me the narrative here was fairly clear. The first vole sat at the entrance to the burrow for 15 minutes but wouldn't leave to feed, which makes me think this is a female caring for pups. When the other vole arrived I expected a fight, but it slipped into the burrow quietly without fuss, so I'm assuming that was the male partner. Only then what I think was the first vole came out to feed. I'd thought that male voles went on their way once the female was impregnated, leaving her alone to raise the young, so this was interesting to watch. If anyone has any thoughts, I'd love to hear them.

Feeding herself up

If this is the nesting female I've been watching over the last couple of days, then she'll need to be fattening herself up for the period she has to spend underground looking after her babies (each litter averages six in number; young leave at about three weeks).

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It's possible that Spot is still around and he's the father - there must be a male about somewhere!

Vole love

Two voles this evening, doing a courtship routine which consisted of repeated chasing, coupling and ignoring each other.

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Malcolm Monie's had an email from Mr Sturton at NSDC letting us know of work next week to the banks further up from this section, but reassuring us it would be sympathetic. The men have been given instructions to cut to a height of 6 inches so as to leave some food and cover for the water voles. No herbicide to be used this year and they have been told to leave a wider margin along the brook at Edward German Drive when mowing the grass. So that's a good example of 'joined up thinking' when it comes to environmental maintenance.

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Had a walk down Whixall Moss and saw sporadic evidence of feeding and a couple of burrows near the car park. There are plenty of ditches all round the Moss, but unfortunately most of them are pretty choked up.