Voles

There are voles in the wood next to the house, and this morning the black cat which regularly visits my garden caught one, a plump, chestnut coloured bank vole. Unlike most cats, this one didn't play with his victim, for which I was grateful.

It’s been estimated that there are 75 million field voles in the UK. That might sound a lot, but it’s not only cats who like to eat voles, they are also predated by foxes, stoats, weasels, buzzards, kestrels and owls. Poor voles! Voles have four to six young, and give birth to between three and six litters in the breeding season, which runs from March to September.

The Orkney Vole, which you may have seen on television, sitting on Chris Packham’s fist, is a separate species. The Orkney Vole was one of Orkney’s first settlers, many thousands of years ago, along with the builders of the archipelago’s stone circles, and many years ago I had an encounter with one.

I was standing in the centre of the Ring of Brodgar when I had the feeling that I was being watched. I should not, of course, have been inside the circle, but I was on my own, and I wanted to know what it felt like to stand at the centre of such a large monument. I looked around. The heather was riddled with vole runs and there at my feet was a little Orkney Vole. Its eyes twinkled for a moment in an “I won’t tell anyone if you won’t tell anyone” kind of way. I felt immensely privileged and I have never forgotten my tiny co-conspirator.