Watch out for the Weasel, little Meadow Vole!

Yesterday, 24 November 2014, I drove over to Fish Creek Park to see if I could photograph one of the Meadow Voles that live near the Long-tailed Weasel that quite a few of us have been visiting recently. On a number of days, the Weasel has been seen catching 8 or 10 Meadow Voles and taking them to its den. Quite the challenge to focus on one of these small, fast little animals - thanks to the friends who helped me find this one! Only got four (macro) shots and this was the only one that came out even remotely sharp.

"The meadow vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus), sometimes called the field mouse or meadow mouse, is a North American vole found across Canada, Alaska and the northern United States. Its range extends further south along the Atlantic coast.

Meadow voles are active year-round, and day or night, with no clear 24-hour rhythm in many areas. Most changes in activity are imposed by season, habitat, cover, temperature, and other factors. Meadow voles have to eat frequently, and their active periods (every two to three hours) are associated with food digestion. In Canada, meadow voles are active the first few hours after dawn and during the two- to four-hour period before sunset. Most of the inactive period is spent in the nest.

Nests are used as nurseries, resting areas, and as protection against weather. They are constructed of woven grass; they are usually subterranean or are constructed under boards, rocks, logs, brush piles, hay bales, fenceposts, or in grassy tussocks. Meadow voles dig shallow burrows, and in burrows, nests are constructed in enlarged chambers. In winter, nests are often constructed on the ground surface under a covering of snow, usually against some natural formation such as a rock or log. Meadow voles form runways or paths in dense grasses.

Meadow voles are an important prey for many hawks, owls, and mammalian carnivores, and they are also taken by some snakes. Almost all species of raptors take microtine (Microtus spp.) rodents as prey. Birds not usually considered predators of mice do take voles; examples include gulls (Larus spp.), northern shrike (Larius borealis), black-billed magpie (Pica pica), common raven (Corvus corvax), American crow (C. brachyrhynchos), great blue heron (Ardea herodias), and American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus).

In northern prairie wetlands, meadow voles are a large portion of the diets of red fox (Vulpes vulpes), mink (Mustela vison), short-eared owl, and northern harrier." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadow_vole