NATURE CLICKS #607 - EASTERN MEADOW VOLE

Eastern Meadow Vole, Mud Lake Park, Mississippi River, Eastern Iowa

They look like a mini beaver without a flat tail with their thick fur, but this one was just the size of my fist. They are pretty common but still not seen very often by many people.

I was actually out for a certain bird species in the Mud Lake area along the Mississippi River but din’t get the shots I had in mind. While walking on a new trail through an area of prairie vegetation that has been planted by the Dubuque County Conservation Board only a few years ago, I discovered this Meadow Vole. It didn’t seem to be bothered by me at all and continued chewing on fresh grass stems while I just walked by. The photo could have been made with any of my lenses but I had only the Nikkor Z600 , f/6.3 with me during this little exploration hike. For a picture like this the minimum focal distance of this lens of about 4 meters can become a disadvantage. It’s not difficult to get a sharp image, but I had to step back and at the end had to crop the photo to get you this intimate environmental portrait of this small critter.

FUN WITH A MUSKRAT

Here is another little story of last weekend’s wildlife trip to the not so green Green Island Wetlands. This young Common Muskrat had just left its burrow for the first time after we had the last snow fall. I could tell by the only and fresh tracks in the snow that covered the ice of the pond and the levee I was on. 

It was real funny to watch. As you can see in the animation (made out of four pictures) it jumped almost like a fox that hunts for mice. Sometimes the musk rat disappeared completely under the snow and came back chewing on some plant material.

Earlier this winter I saw many traps, or at least the red flags that mark the location of a trap, along the shore of the lakes and canals. This one obviously survived the merciless greed for its durable and waterproof fur