Photographing Bank Voles- Vlog
Last week I got the opportunity to spend the morning taking what I think are some of the cutest photographs to ever exist, and so I thought I what better way to share the experience then to write a blog post giving all the cute details and some bonus photographs of how this photography session went down!
Note: This post accompanies a YouTube video which you can watch here in a separate tab or scroll to the bottom of this article to watch!
‘Hey luv, there’s a blue tit right on that branch’ I smiled as this guy must have thought I was an absolutely rubbish photographer just sat there not snapping away at any of the birds in prime positions. I tried to yell back that I was in fact there to photograph bank voles however, he had already moved on with his dog, so I don’t think he heard me (either that or he had no idea ‘bank vole’ was a thing and thought I’d totally lost it).
It was 9:38 and I was sat on top of a cushion in the driver’s seat of my car pulled all the way back for maximum camera lens fit. On the left all my gear was laid out on the passenger’s side and to the right I had my window all the way down with my beanbag and telephoto lens pointed directly at the ground. To be fair to the dog walker it must have been a slightly peculiar sight as most people walking past just saw a fairly dirty puddle next to a rock with not much wildlife in sight. However, what they had failed to notice was the small hole just underneath the centre of the rock where upon lived several bank vole.
It was my friend (and fellow nature nerd) Louise who had given me the location for this shoot, this was her local woodland and I guess she stumbled across the bank voles by mistake when returning to her car from a walk around the forest. The night before she’d be kind enough to give me the exact location as well as a video, so I knew roughly which holes where bank vole and which where not.
It took roughly an hour and a half before I saw my first vole it stuck it head out for around half a millisecond (not even long enough for me to reach my camera button) before it darted back inside, but that millisecond was enough for me to know I’d been right about cancelling my Tuesday plans in favour of this location because that vole may have been one of the cutest mammals I had ever seen.
Over the next 3 hours I took around 300 photographs and videos, watching the voles pop up from various different holes in and around the rock, nearby tree stump and grassy bank and they may have been the happiest three hours of 2024 so far because I got some truly adorable shots and footage which I have rewatched too many times and dedicated all my various iPhone, laptop, and iPad wallpapers too. I even went as far as to make my favourite photo an A4 Print available in my shop (It will be available from April 15th!).
Since, this first trip I have already been back again to the same spot, and I have also started looking around my local woodland to see if I can find another spot where bank voles may be present so I can scout out a different location! If you enjoyed this post, consider checking out the linked YouTube video of morning or if you want to read more about my wildlife adventures click here.
