Thursday, March 19, 2009

A sign of spring?







We woke up to find these large mounds of dirt all over our three acres.
From the window we thought a large animal had used our entire property as its bathroom.



On closer examination, the mounds of dirt (some of which are quite large) are beside a hole(s) coming from underground. Some of the holes have tunnels which leave lines across the ground, some up to 10 feet long. Weird.
After a tiny bit of investigating we think these are vole holes, apparently common in this area, although new to us. Its a good thing we aren't particular about the grass!

4 comments:

Karen said...

first thought on seeing the pics: MOOOOSE
yuck - lol
K

grammyjan said...

I thought voles lived by a river?
What's the diference between a mole hole and a vole hole? No it's not a joke I just want to know!

gardening gal said...

When I know I will let you know- seriously who knew I would spend my time investigating such things!

ponddweller said...

Voles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vole
Moles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moles

It seems by first glance moles are much bigger, a vole is like a mouse, I have spotted them many times(voles) in the yard during the winter. Its hard to tell them apart from a typical Muskoka field mouse.

Voles and Moles are significantly different physically.

Steve