Clophill Lakes, Bedfordshire: Bank vole or wood mouse? On a series of nine-second videos, they’re not so easy to tell apart
Bank vole or wood mouse? That is the question. I’m working my way through a series of nine-second videos from Clophill Lakes nature reserve, taking notes on how many bank voles appear in the clips. Unfortunately, I can’t tell my voles from my mice.
The footage begins at 4.47pm, when wildlife volunteer Stephen Plummer switches on the trail camera in his mostela trap: a wooden box with a drainpipe entrance leading to a scattering of nuts and seeds. Both wood mice and bank voles star in the Clophill Saga – a rodential drama set in deciduous woodland beside old ponds – but I’m struggling to tell the two species apart, especially in the monochrome infrared light. I take notes as they enter: BV, 2BV, WM, BV. Or is it WM? I check the differences between them for the umpteenth time – 216 clips later (at 4.46am), I reckon I’ve got my eye in.
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