Now anyone who has a phobia for small furry animals had better give this post a miss!

These are a few photos of the local vole residents around Dunces Corner Hide. The family of voles particularly like the dry stone wall around the hide. They appear to be field voles, which is not a major surprise as this is one of the UK’s commonest mammals (estimated population of 75 million).

They are not too shy so I can usually get quite close to take a few snaps, they are more interested in the food.

Unfortunately the poor little vole is a tasty little snack for lots of predators, so it needs to reproduce in large numbers just to survive. They typically have 4-5 young in a litter, which doesn’t sound a lot but then they have 5-6 litters a year!