A number of bank voles

rawoak · #1 (**permalink**) 19-12-2011, 06:27 AM

Our garden has become the meeting place and home of a number of bank voles though the most I have counted at one time is 5, because of the frequency of sightings I believe there are more. Since it is not realy that cold I have no idea why there is this sudden influx (over the last 3 to 4 weeks.

vole-woman · #2 (**permalink**) 19-12-2011, 07:08 AM

How lovely! Could you get some pictures?

I don't know the answer to your question unless you're providing a source of food (eg bird food) that wasn't there before. Or it could be just one family of voles moved in.

rawoak · #3 (**permalink**) 19-12-2011, 07:11 AM

I will try for photos but they are very shy as for food the only thing I can see is berrys from a shrub that the birds are dropping on the ground. Perhaps that is the reason for the voles...

Dogghound · #4 (**permalink**) 19-12-2011, 09:27 AM

There could be several resons for this. It could be due to your garden being warmer than surrounding areas or that it has a good food supply or habitat change in the wider area has fored them to move. Bank voles tend to be more social outside of the breeding season. It could be the remains of a family group from the late summer/autumn. Despite you only seeing them for the past 3/4 weeks they could have been around longer as they can be very secretive. The pre-breeding population is when numbers are at their peak before the cold winter weather. This is common in all small mammals, the population peaks in autumn/early winter then declines into late winter spring.

rawoak · #5 (**permalink**) 20-12-2011, 06:57 AM

Thank you Dogghound that was a most usefull answer I am still watching the from afar, they are as you say very shy and dissapear into shallow runs as soon as you set foot of the path (I asume it is viberation they feel.) Well they are most welcome but I suspect that the owl that has started to come round the place will move them on if not eat them all, I hope the former.iIt's all part of living here in the wilds of the west country

willowjay · #6 (**permalink**) 20-12-2011, 08:07 AM

Yesterday I glanced at the bird feeders in the garden, and noticed a Dunnock creeping around on the grass beneath the peanuts. Nothing unusual. They really do move around just like mice I thought. Looked again. Went to get the binoculars. Right - so not the little wood mouse I've seen in the garden before. Shorter tail, reddish fur, generally chunkier.

I watched him dashing around for at least ten minutes, and I presume he (she) is a bank vole. Totally delightful.

vole-woman · #7 (**permalink**) 20-12-2011, 10:13 AM

You lucky thing.

rawoak · #8 (**permalink**) 21-12-2011, 05:13 AM

The more the merrier. I was also lucky enough to catch sight of a water vole on a walk alone the bank of our local streem yesterday but that was a cheat as I more or less knew where to look, There has been one or two there for the whole year this year.

vole-woman · #9 (**permalink**) 21-12-2011, 12:15 PM

That's great. Does the county wildlife trust know about them? And the landowner? It's worth making them known as they're protected by law.

rawoak · #10 (**permalink**) 22-12-2011, 05:33 AM

The land owner knows as thats me and I am a member of the local wild life trust. As such informed them. I was just out in the garden and as it's still quite dark I listen rather than look, but there is an owl in the trees that border our fields calling to one further off. The little owls make such a noise in the mornings that you can hardly hear any thing else but in the silent gap betwen the owls I could hear scuffling in the under growth of the hedge.
It seem that our little friends use the hedge when the owls are about...