Friday, 21 August 2009

Short-tailed Vole

One of the seed feeders at the observation hide at Wallington Hall hangs beside a twiggy pyramid erected by the wardens to provide cover for the visiting birds. When I visited the hide last weekend, a tiny creature popped its head out of a hole in the earth under this structure and looked around. The ground surrounding the hole was covered in wasted sunflower seeds, some of which had germinated. The creature, a short-tailed vole, emerged from the hole and fed briefly from the seeds before returning underground down an adjacent hole.

Short-tailed Vole (Microtis argretis)

Because of the poor available light, it was quite hard to process a record picture from the deeply shadowed original. I hope the following will serve to confirm identification.

Short-tailed Vole (Microtis argretis)

5 comments:

kirstallcreatures said...

I especially like the first pic of the Vole peering out of the hole Emma, lovely. Linda

Unknown said...

Lovely shots of the Vole...nice capture Emma.

FAB said...

Opportunistic little chap. Well spotted Emma.

holdingmoments said...

Cracking shot, that first one Emma.
He's got quite a larder on his doorstep :)

Anonymous said...

The conditions aside Emma, you created some really good images.