Country diary: The barn owls are back in the valley | Susie White

Allendale, Northumberland: I had thought they were gone for good, but in this peak year for vole numbers, they have reboundedThe flattened green line of our path wiggles through a tussocky field of strawy tumps and wind?bent grasses. At every few paces there's a panicked brown scuttle as a small mammal dashes for cover; we've not seen so many voles in all the years we've lived here. Everywhere we look there are entrances to burrows, neat round holes half hidden by grass.The populations of both bank and field voles fluctuate over a cycle. A peak year is followed by a crash after which numbers build up again, impacting on the health and abundance of predators. The cycle can happen within a fairly limited area and in this valley it's a super?peak year. Continue reading...