Otter day trip

On the topic of the return of wildlife, whilst walking past the trout farm the other day I noticed a lady with a car full of otters. I wish I'd asked where she was going with them. A few guesses:

1. Is it possible to hunt mink with a pack of otters? That avoids the ban on hunting with dogs.

2. A trip to the trout farm with a family of otters would be a big hit. But how does someone get in a position to treat otters? (And you'd get banned from the farm pretty quickly.)

3. Perhaps then it was a day trip from the otter refuge (but isn't there a risk they'll run away?)

4. Weren't there otter noses for sale in the stadium in Life of Brian? And there's an ice cream van parked up nearby. Leave that one there.

5. Travelling otter circus uses unmarked car.

I really wish I'd asked.

Vole questing

I've noticed the village has got a new attraction (most of the attractions round here are very old, so it really is news). Increasingly, people are visiting the village on water vole-spotting tours.

Apparently there are two colonies of voles: one is located directly in front of the shop, nestled beneath the fourteenth-century 'clapper' bridge, and the other is upstream in front of the Swan Hotel.

When people come into the shop and say they've seen a water vole I can't help asking them if they're sure that it wasn't a rat. It appears that people can be divided into two camps: those who see a small rodent in the river and call it a vole and those who see a small rodent in the river and call it a rat. Sort of half-a-glass full versus half-a-glass empty.

Sad to admit, I'm in the latter camp although I am told that these two colonies are in fact voles. They were nearly driven to exctinction by the mink which now itself has been eradicated, partly by another returnee, the otter. Leaving rats, sorry voles, aside, otters back and mink gone: even a half-glass empty sort of person like me is cheered by that.

Water Voles versus Rats: How to Tell the Difference

(or is it all in the eye of the beholder?)