Occasionally we have had field voles make use of our azalea trough, but they came and went after quite short stays. Whether their departures were of their own volition we do not know as sometimes a weasel would include the trough in his hunting area.
The field voles - grey, rather oblong in shape, with short tails and insignificant ears, were interesting to watch, but no-where as cute as the present occupier. It, actually she, is a bank-vole - more mouse-like in shape with lovely snuff-to-chestnut coloured fur on her back and light grey underneath, a longish tail and noticeable ears. She was first spotted during the frosty weather in early February, dashing out from the trough to pinch breadcrumbs put out for the birds.
The trough is about two metres long by half a metre, and 35cms deep. It backs onto the garden wall and the azaleas are well-grown so there is plenty of cover. It is obviously riddled with tunnels as the vole pops up, and disappears, in various places. Her 'front door' is the front bottom corner of the right-hand side of the trough as we look at it from our sitting-room window. The left-hand front corner is referred to as her 'back-door'. The trough is about a metre-and-a-half from the house, set on a narrow border of gravel which stretches the full length of the garden wall and is extended to give a 15cm border along the front of the trough. The rest is grass.
The main viewing position is through the sitting-room window which is slightly to the right, putting us within a couple of metres of the vole's front door. If food is strategically placed she will come much closer. In the early days she had an interesting tactic for getting food at a distance from the trough. She would venture out about 15cms, dash back to the cover of the trough, then venture out about 30cm and dash back, before making the final rush to grab the food and take it home. It was as if she was saying to herself - 'I'm out this far and still alive to tell the tale, let's see what happens if I go a bit further'. This procedure has long since been abandoned. The vole feeds in the open and moves around on top of the trough, and among the plants along the wall, frightened into retreat only by sudden noise, vehicles going up the lane beside the house (but not those going along the main road, about a metre from her back wall), and birds. Blackbirds cause instant flight, the robin is his usual aggressive self, but dunnocks, chaffinches and sparrows only cause the vole to dart for cover if, in the course of their feeding, they move towards her. One day the dunnock did so and, in a flash, she was in her front door, out of her back door and along the front of the trough to settle to eat behind the bird.
The items put out for birds and vole are wholemeal breadcrumbs, small pieces of apple and occasionally small pieces of cheese. If all three are served at the same time the cheese goes first and the apple last. She prefers dessert apple. I've seen her take a piece of cooking apple into the trough and bring it straight back out! When she eats in the open, she picks up pieces of food in her front paws and eats squirrel-like, but in a crouched position, not straightening her back. This action brings forth great 'oohs' and ahs' from visiting spectators! The vole has also climbed the azaleas to get onto the cotoneaster, which merges into them from the other side of the wall, and enjoyed eating its blossoms. At first she would flee at the rattle of the window opening and not reappear for some time. Now she seems to regard the opening of a window as the dinner-gong! She also responds to the scraping of my fingernails across the saucer after I've delivered the food to her, or to a few gentle taps on the wood of the trough.
I assumed the vole's source of water to be the pond at the back of the house, so placed a shallow dish of pond-water near her front entrance. I thought she would need to get used to its presence before making use of it but she immediately recognised it for what it was. On one occasion she perched on the edge of the dish with all four feet, reaching to the middle for her drink.
Recently a shrew has appeared via the vole's front entrance and eagerly made use of the dish of water. It followed the vole's early strategy, taking a sip, dashing to base, dashing out for another sip and quickly back, and so on. It also picked up pieces of bread and carried them into the trough, which surprised us as we thought shrews were totally carnivorous. So far as we have seen, the vole and shrew appear to be sharing the trough and the goodies provided without friction.
Because voles move so very quickly it was not until we actually saw two voles out in the open that our suspicions were confirmed that our vole had a visitor. For a short time there were high jinks in and out of the tunnels in the trough and in and out of plants in the narrow border along the wall. Then she was on her own again until one afternoon we became aware of three or four voles rushing around amongst the azalea stems on top of the trough. That flurry of activity was the only time we saw them and thought they might be youngsters being driven off to find their own territory. Then same sequence of events occurred again. A visit from the vole, who we think lives near the pond, followed after an appropriate interval by the appearance of youngsters. We saw more of this litter - at first two, who were joined the next day by a smaller one. On first sighting they didn't seem to be much larger than bumblebees, cute little miniatures of their mother, but they grew apace. Sometimes all three would come out to feed together, often squabbling over a tasty morsel, and they would play chase in and out of the tunnels in the trough and among the plants in front of our viewing point. Once two were seen having a go at each other, standing up on their hind legs and boxing like hares.
We had noticed the vole picking up pieces of bread and taking them to push into the edge of the lawn or deep in the roots of the grass. We thought she was hiding them for a future meal. However, recently a particular incident intrigued us. The vole came out, picked up a piece of bread, ran along the narrow strip of gravel in front of the trough and pushed it into the edge of the lawn, and returned to base. A moment later one of the triplets came out, tracked along its mother's route, systematically inspecting the edge of the lawn, until it found the piece of bread, sat where it was and ate it, and returned home. Other pieces of bread were available on the grass. Co-incidence? Or had we witnessed a training session? It was the last we saw of any of the triplets. Did they have to prove their capabilities before being ejected into the outside world?
Our vole had a visitor a few days ago.............
We are retired so are around a lot of the day and whenever we pass the sitting-room window it is difficult to resist the temptation to glance out to see if the vole is visible and, if we are lucky enough to spot her, it is even more difficult to resist the temptation to watch her antics. What we have seen over the past six months comes from some lucky glances in the right direction at the right time, followed by quite brief spells of vole-watching.
Just once the vole reversed our roles. Not realising she was out and about I startled her as I approached the trough. She fled but turned and viewed me from the safety of her front door, at a distance of about two metres, until I moved from my frozen stance.
I have not read up about bank voles, though I did seek their identification, many years ago, when cat-owning brought us into contact with them in somewhat less benign circumstances. So the chances are that we have noted what we could see rather than what we thought we ought to see.
Pamela Oldroyd, July 1998