The benefit of a cold winter?………

This appears to a ‘vole year’ in my garden.  Everywhere you look, there are voles dashing out of the borders or long grass and picking up peanut crumbs or seeds under the bird feeders.  One is even sitting on my windowsill a lot of the time, picking up seeds that fall from the window feeder.  These are the cutest little mammals and every 6 years or so, generally after a cold winter, there is a boom year.  This will coincide with better survival of young tawny owls and kestrels, as there is more food around for them. Three young tawny owls have been frequently visiting my garden at dusk or calling from the wood next door – a wonderful consequence of last winter’s long term snow cover which protected the over-wintering voles, and therefore increasing the spring breeding population.