‘Our’ Bank Voles

Bobby the Bank Vole

We haven’t seen ‘our’ squirrel around lately. Nor the lizards. Or the birds. Come to think of it, the mice and shrews have also become rather anti-social. At least the bank voles haven’t disappeared. They are still entertaining us.

How do we know they are not mice? Or shrews? We have those too.

Bobby Bank Vole and Mathis Mouse

Well, the shrew is easily ruled out. It’s tiny with a much longer nose and awesome spike like fangs.

Sacha Shrew

The vole has a rounder head than the mouse and a bigger, sturdier looking body. Muscular even. The mouse has much bigger ears (think Mickey Mouse) bigger eyes and longer tail than the vole. Then there’s the colour. Easy to spot, the vole’s fur is an attractive rusty red/ chestnut brown.

Bobby Bank Vole

Oh to be a Borrower* to see inside the vole’s underground home. It’s said to be lined with moss and feathers. It even has separate store cupboards full of food.

Mrs Vole needs it. She can have four litters of up to ten pups every summer. Each pup is sexually mature at six weeks. That’s an awful lot of voles. ‘Ours’ must be practising birth control. We only see what seems to be the same, bolder, two.

Incidentally they get along very well with the mice. Both often pop their heads out of the same hole at the same time.

* The Borrowers, a story for children, was written in 1952 by Mary Norton. It’s about a family of tiny people who live under the floor of a house and borrow what they need.

Post by Pamela, photography by Mark.