I was exchanging pleasantries with a friend on Monday when a glossy little vole darted out from under the propane tank and into the pasture grass. This was a very busy little vole, and looked suspiciously rotund. I wondered how she would get back into the vole hole, but she managed.
The vole thought I bore watching, and kept her beady little eyes on me.
She was right. I had concluded that she was building a nest because she was not fat but ripely pregnant. I was thinking it would be interesting to peer through her window to get a picture of the nest. Just in time I thought of what I would feel like if a large rodent peered into my window, and gave it up.
All of this reminds me that I must keep an eye on the smaller rodents in the neighborhood to see if they are slender and fit. I am reliably informed by the University of Michigan Health System that someone over there has done a five-month mouse study underwritten by the Cherry Marketing Institute. Unsurprisingly, the study reveals that a cherry-enriched diet makes for heart-healthy mice. (Importantly, the mice eating the cherry diets had a 65 percent reduction in early death, likely due to improved cardiovascular health.)
This is interesting stuff, but I am dubious. The release mentions the unbearably spammy term for the dread abdominal avoirdupois, which pretty much always turns me right off. However, I am a loyal cherry muncher, and I share the general conviction in Antrim County that regular quaffs of cherry juice help ease the aches and pains that plague us. The evidence, as my physician likes to say, is anecdotal but persuasive. If I find that the mice are buff and bright-eyed, tummies tucked, I will become a true believer.
Torch Lake Views 
P.j. grath
April 21, 2011
Gerry, did you see Jerry Dennis’s post on voles a while back? I’m with you, by the way, convinced by the cherry anecdotes. Who has time to wait until “all the evidence is in,” and who wants to, when cherries are so delicious?
Gerry
April 21, 2011
I don’t recall seeing it, no, but I’ll go over there and look. I swear I forget everything. I do recall the bird calls and I do recall the musing on the nature of information and data and human nature. I like visiting Jerry.
As for the cherries – I don’t see how they can hurt, and honestly I do think cherry juice helps. I just wish the marketing campaign was . . . different. But what do I know? I can’t even remember things!
Karma
April 22, 2011
How do you tell the difference between a vole and a mole? I have some tunneling creature in the yard that I assume is a mole. Your little vole seems much cuter, and maybe less destructive than a mole.
Gerry
April 22, 2011
I looked it up in my beloved Stan Tekiela. Voles are cuter. Moles have long pointy snouts except for the star-nosed mole which looks as if it has an anemone stuck to its face. You almost never see moles, even though their tunnels are everywhere. (Tekiela argues that the mole is beneficial because the pesky tunnels aerate the soil.) You see voles all the time, and often mistake them for mice. On the evidence, I have both voles and moles in the vicinity of the Writing Studio and Bait Shop, which may account for the owls and the turned ankles.
With all this looking up, I took a close look at the vole, and I’ve added some zoomed-in crops to the post so you can see her better. Someone who knows more than I will undoubtedly drop by and tell us new stuff about her.
Dawn
April 23, 2011
Gotta love that mouse research. I vote we all just eat more cherries and see where it goes. Love the vole…she’s probably glad you didn’t try for interior photos of her place as well though.
Gerry
April 23, 2011
The vole is attractive, isn’t she. Probably eats a lot of cherries.
flandrumhill
April 23, 2011
Isn’t she sweet! I’ll bet her babies will be too! Let me know if you get overun by them and I’ll send you some mouse recipes. Souris Cordon Bleu is a good one. I’m sure you could substitute vole without much change in flavor 😉
Gerry
April 23, 2011
Amy-Lynn, you are full of surprises.