Today the good lady and I took our dog down to the beach for a stroll. It was a mixed day, cloudy and showery one minute then glorious sunshine the next! Days like this I don't mind at all.
As we walked along the beach, the tide was just receding after high tide. So the water was well up and the beach itself was maybe only 10 meters or so before you get the shore vergetation. As we walked along the waterline with the dog in the water. My wife shouts over and asked "what's that?". I looked over to where she was looking and I saw a short tailed field vole run like the clappers down the beach towards us and straight into the water!!!
, it then swam like crazy through the small waves and soon disapeared away out in the distance. I managed to follow it for some time with my 10 x 42 monocular and once it was well over 100 meters out it started swimming parrallel with the shore. I then lost it, I think it may have drowned.
I've seen plenty animals behave strangely in my time but this really took me by surprise. Don;t get me wrong, I've seen plenty mammals feed on the beech before, from badgers, foxes, hedgehogs, rabbits, mink, otters, brown and black rats, even stoats and weasels after rabbits and occassionally small mammals but none have ever behaved in such a way like this.Very very strange indeed. Has anyone else observed anything similar or can they offer an explanation? There were no stoats/weasels or any predators seen.
As we walked along the beach, the tide was just receding after high tide. So the water was well up and the beach itself was maybe only 10 meters or so before you get the shore vergetation. As we walked along the waterline with the dog in the water. My wife shouts over and asked "what's that?". I looked over to where she was looking and I saw a short tailed field vole run like the clappers down the beach towards us and straight into the water!!!
, it then swam like crazy through the small waves and soon disapeared away out in the distance. I managed to follow it for some time with my 10 x 42 monocular and once it was well over 100 meters out it started swimming parrallel with the shore. I then lost it, I think it may have drowned. I've seen plenty animals behave strangely in my time but this really took me by surprise. Don;t get me wrong, I've seen plenty mammals feed on the beech before, from badgers, foxes, hedgehogs, rabbits, mink, otters, brown and black rats, even stoats and weasels after rabbits and occassionally small mammals but none have ever behaved in such a way like this.Very very strange indeed. Has anyone else observed anything similar or can they offer an explanation? There were no stoats/weasels or any predators seen.
