Breakfast in Bed

[Deleted member 34016]

It must be nice to eat your home environment - Water Vole on the River Tone- enjoying some Reeds, he seems to be rather fat, I'm guessing he's stocking up for winter ?

Sony a7Riii + Sony 200-600mm GM lens - Hand held

Water Vole with Breakfast by Les Moxon, on Flickr

Thanks for looking


Les

 

[AdamSi]

Wow that is one very round vole. Lovey capture as always Les

 

[Deleted member 34016]

Wow that is one very round vole. Lovey capture as always Les

Thanks buddy. He is rather round [emoji28]

 

[jerry12953]

Love it!

 

[Rustydon]

Looks like a hairy balloon, Les - as you say, definitely stocking up for winter! Lovely shot

Russ

 

[superpippo]

What an excellently caught shot

 

[holty]

a cracking shot
never seen one

 

[mstphoto]

Well spotted and captured, Les
The Water Voles are black up here

 

[Deleted member 34016]

Love it!

Thank you Jerry

Looks like a hairy balloon, Les - as you say, definitely stocking up for winter! Lovely shot

Russ

Cheers Mate - I heard him munching those Reeds- long before I saw him

What an excellently caught shot

Thank you Alan- fieldcraft and a long Lens helps

a cracking shot
never seen one

I do'nt often see them, sometimes I drop on lucky

Well spotted and captured, Les
The Water Voles are black up here

Black?? I never knew that Mike - are they common?

Les

 

[superpippo]

Thank you Alan- fieldcraft and a long Lens helps

I suspect that your fieldcraft is 90% of this.

 

[Deleted member 34016]

I suspect that your fieldcraft is 90% of this.

22 years as a Sniper Paratrooper does give me a little edge I guess Oh and 10 years as a Gamekeeper too

Les

 

[Stuart Philpott]

love this TFS ha ha sooooo fat

 

[mstphoto]

Les - Our black Water Voles

BBC Two - The Animal's Guide to Britain, Freshwater Animals, Black water voles of Balmoral

Chris Packham uncovers a rabbit/mink link that spells disaster for water voles.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[HarryLens]

Beautiful shot. Cute little thing.

 

[Deleted member 34016]

Beautiful shot. Cute little thing.

Thank you Shane

Les

 

[sphexx]

Les - Our black Water Voles

BBC Two - The Animal's Guide to Britain, Freshwater Animals, Black water voles of Balmoral

Chris Packham uncovers a rabbit/mink link that spells disaster for water voles.

www.bbc.co.uk

Thanks. Finally got to watch that — it doesn’t play on the iPad. Not too surprising that the abundance of rabbits maintains a large mink population to the detriment of water voles. I’ve seen another possible effect of rabbits on water voles on rivers near York where the land is ‘alive’ with rabbits running back to burrows on the bank (as you walk along the river) and you can see that the bank serially collapses . The habitat in the Balmoral video is an illustration that mink are everywhere. I haven’t seen much about their effect on non aquatic birds but they are great climbers so they must take nestlings or sleeping adults. I’ve been told they take piglets from outdoor pigs .

 

[Deleted member 34016]

Les - Our black Water Voles

BBC Two - The Animal's Guide to Britain, Freshwater Animals, Black water voles of Balmoral

Chris Packham uncovers a rabbit/mink link that spells disaster for water voles.

www.bbc.co.uk

Very interesting Mike- the only black stuff I've seen on the Levels is this chap

Wild Mink

Les

 

[mstphoto]

Very interesting Mike- the only black stuff I've seen on the Levels is this chap

Wild Mink

Les

We had quite a few around here at one time but haven't seen one for years.
Menaces but beautiful at the same time.
Someone locally said that the Otters have driven them out but I'm not sure if there's any truth in that.
Trapping and culling, I would have thought, would be the reason.
All because some "do-gooders" thought they were doing the right thing by breaking in to a Mink farm on the outskirts of the city and releasing them into the wild.

 

[sphexx]

We had quite a few around here at one time but haven't seen one for years.
Menaces but beautiful at the same time.
Someone locally said that the Otters have driven them out

I think that may be true on rivers but I don’t think there’s any definitive study of it. There’s a lot of places on rivers where they are trapped and exterminated but they usually recolonise the following year so if Otters are present it should be possible to say whether or not the Mink have come back in those situations.

but I'm not sure if there's any truth in that.
Trapping and culling, I would have thought, would be the reason.
All because some "do-gooders" thought they were doing the right thing by breaking in to a Mink farm on the outskirts of the city and releasing them into the wild.

Indeed!

 

[mstphoto]

Cheers Richard

 

[Deleted member 34016]

We had quite a few around here at one time but haven't seen one for years.
Menaces but beautiful at the same time.
Someone locally said that the Otters have driven them out but I'm not sure if there's any truth in that.
Trapping and culling, I would have thought, would be the reason.
All because some "do-gooders" thought they were doing the right thing by breaking in to a Mink farm on the outskirts of the city and releasing them into the wild.

I still see the occasional Otter on the Levels and they being suck large creatures, I doubt a Mink would drive them out

I also got this on a Private fishing Lake, where I have permission to photograph - It no longer resides there- enough said

Les