Some years ago, when I was writing a book about wildlife gardening for children, I needed some pictures of mice, so I borrowed some humane traps, baited them with peanut butter, and set them around my allotment and garden in order to capture a mouse to photograph. Instead I caught a bank vole. I let him go and set the trap again and almost immediately caught the same one again. Then again. In the end I had to conclude that he harboured a secret desire to 1.) eat his body weight in peanut butter and 2.) have his picture taken,  so I gave him his wish and  he sat, posing prettily, while I adjusted lights and exposure and snapped away. I think, in the end, he must have had enough of both the peanut butter and the limelight because when I set him free the next time he left the traps alone and I was able to catch my mouse.

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So, as you can see, bank voles are endearing creatures and, being bolder and less easily spooked than mice, they are  relatively easy to spot as they brivet around the garden, foraging and hunting and going about their business. I have even seen one happily munching his way through some bird seed on a bird table as the night drew in one evening.

Unlike their cousins, bank voles are quite happy to climb and forage in shrubs and trees so if you see a small furry creature up a tree, you may well be looking at a vole! In the garden they can occasionally dig up and nibble newly planted bulbs but they aren’t a nuisance on the whole and they prefer seeds, nuts, fungi and fruit (with, apparently, a particular penchant for blackberries), but they will also feast on small insects, snails and slugs.  These little creatures are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk, though they can often be seen darting out of the way if they are disturbed. 

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Bank voles are one of the three species of voles that live in the UK, and the only one to be commonly encountered in gardens. The other species are shy and skittish and not often seen. The field vole (also known as the short-tailed vole) lives in wilder places, though he will sometimes be spotted near an allotment,  and the much larger water vole (who used to be known as the water rat  and went by the name of Ratty in the Wind in the Willows) is only found nesting on the banks of streams and small rivers. 

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The bank vole is a small rodent with chestnut brown fir and a rounded nose. It can be quickly distinguished from other small rodents by its ears, it’s nose and its tail. The medium sized ears are smaller than a mouse’s ears, but bigger than the ears of its cousin, the field vole. Its tail is slightly more than half the  length of its 10cm long body. Mice are slimmer than voles and have pointy noses, and shrews are just plain skinny and their noses are even pointier and wifflier. They are all quite easy to tell apart, once you have spotted one of each for the first time.

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Bank voles only live for a few months, up to a maximum of 2 years, and individuals who are born early in the year will be able to breed before the end of the first breeding season which lasts from March to October. Voles don’t hibernate, but instead grow a thick coat to see them through the winter.

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They live in breeding colonies where 5 or 6 males and 5 or 6 females share overlapping territories of around 1000 square metres . Their home range is made up of a network of runs and pathways that are formed through rough grass and shallow tunnels. The females are very protective of their young and have been observed fussily carrying an adventurous pup back to the safety of the nest.  The nest itself is a nice, neat affair, well lined with fur, feathers and moss and well stocked with food. It can be in a shallow underground hole, under a shelter such as a woodpile or above ground in a dense thicket of grass.

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• Ever heard of the Vole Clock? This curious method of dating archaeological sites is considered to be one of the most accurate methods available to archaeologists and it is all based on voles teeth and skull structures! Because the teeth and skulls are so durable and their structure has changed so markedly over time, archaeologists use the tiny skeletal remains that are found in an excavation to pinpoint the date of the site.

• It is estimated that there are around 23 million voles in Britain, and, like mice, the numbers swing from high to low and back again in cycles that last around 4 years. Sadly for them, they are a very important food for tawny owls, foxes, weasels,  stoats, kestrels and buzzards and their population explosions are soon controlled by their predators.