A Water Vole Excavating a New Burrow at King's Meads

27th January 2023

No 1 son Mark was having his early morning run across King's Meads when he noticed a mammal swimming close to the bank of the stream. The immediate assumption was a Brown Rat but closer inspection showed that it was indeed a Water Vole, The vole proceeded to sit at the entrance to its hole and even posed on the bank for some phone photos.

I went down there mid-morning and after 20 minutes of searching had found no sign of movement, but then spotted a few ripples coming from a part of the bank that was out of view. The ripples were too small to have been made by a swimming Water Vole, but I was intrigued and changed position to be able to see into that corner.

I immediately spotted the vole which was excavating a new burrow and the ripples were caused by the vole kicking out the loose soil into the water. After watching the vole and taking several photos I was able to build up a picture of the process of digging a new burrow which goes something like this.

The vole goes up to the end of the new burrow and scratches away some new soil. It then kicks it back down the burrow to the entrance and puts its head out of the burrow to see if it is safe to eject the soil.

It then leaves the burrow, turns round and re-enters the burrow..........................

.......................and uses its hind legs to eject the soil.

But all this digging is dirty work and every now and then the vole would leave the burrow and dive under water to get rid of the soil......................

.......................followed by a quick shake to remove the water proplets. Just look at those droplets fly!!!

Well a special thanks to Mark for finding the vole and allowing this insight into its private life to unfold.