Mice vs Voles

Our Stella Petronella is a bit of a hunter.  Particularly for the little mice that live in the grass beside the canals and walks.  She's sadly quite good at it, and is managing to reduce the population a little bit most days.  Ho hum.

The wild thing is that she can hear them scurrying underground, and she pauses and waits then pounces right down through the grass and earth and sometimes comes up with them.  Other times she starts excavating digging her face down into the soil, which is very very soft and sandy throughout the Netherlands as it is essentially a gigantic reclaimed peat bot / delta / man made (sand made) land.

She doesn't eat them though, she doesn't seem to be sure what to do with them, so she carries them for a bit and then puts them down.  It does kind of bother me, in all honesty, but some other bird is likely getting a meal out of it anyway.  The thing is though that we've been alternating between calling them mice and voles, not really sure what the difference is, so I finally looked them up.  They're about the same size, but voles are stockier with shorter tails and small ears.  Frankly they're adorable.  They also mostly live underground and in runways they make in the grass, while mice are more often in our houses!

Not my photo, from wiki

However, they only live for about 6 months maximum!  That's a very short lifespan indeed!!!  It also oddly makes me feel a little less bad about Stella pursuing them.  I worried that she was making them burn through precious energy for hibernation, but no.  They mostly eat plant roots, so these are some healthy voles in ideal habitats.

Still makes me a little sad when she catches them though.  Boy does she love the hunt, on the other hand.