Around face and blunt nose pop out of a burrow. Pin-prick eyes as black as midnight scan for danger. Whiskers twitch; the coast is clear. The vole’s chestnut coat glows in the setting sun as it scurries among reeds and rushes. Its stouter body and shorter hairy tail tell it apart from its cousin, the mouse.
Gliding across moorland, a short-eared owl detects movement in the long grass: the vole is in her sights. With silent wings, she steadies herself against the force of the wind, readying to attack.
There’s a panicked scuttle as the rodent runs for cover. The predator traces the vole’s urine-stained trails; its tracks fluoresce under ultraviolet rays, making it highly visible to a hunting bird of prey. To evade its foe, the vole races along well-trodden paths,…
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The Simple Things (Digital) - 1 Issue, September 2024