Any idea what caused these?

[Tricky Dicky]

I cut the lawns for the first time this year and found this series of 4 holes at the edge of the side lawn beside a retaining wall. My first thought was moles but I have not seen any sign of moles in our locality. They do not look like traditional mole hills but then again I am no expert. Just over the fence on the other side of the lawn is open fields leading down to a steep wooded valley with two reservoirs at the bottom. I would be grateful if anyone can suggest what caused these holes and what should i do about them?

[Davey]

Rats?

[Matthias Czech]

Am 22.03.2024 um 16:41 schrieb Tricky Dicky:

Holes, but no moles --> Voles ;-)

[Brian]

While I’m not an expert on moles, when I have seen them, they have left hills.

I’ve seen similar holes on caravan sites where there are rabbits but not so close together.

If they are rabbits, look for them in the early morning and around dusk. When we are on sites with rabbits, my wife in particular enjoys watching them around these times.

I like rabbit but I can’t convince my wife to eat it 😊

[Andy Burns]

more like rabbits, since they aren't coming up from underneath, or possibly voles

[alan_m]

foxes digging

[Tricky Dicky]

The openings are about the size of a tennis ball and just look like pits and I cannot see any tunnels leading off but then again I have not put my hand down to have a feel around for obvious reasons. We do get foxes visiting every night and SWAMBO has set up a feeding station nearby so that seems favourite at the moment.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Rats or rabbits. Pee in the holes

[alan_m]

I have a few similar holes in my garden and I watched the fox dig them. I think they are after grubs/worms etc.

[GB]

Are there drain holes in the retaining wall?

[Jeff Gaines]

If you do be careful they don't jump up and bite you :-)

[Tim+]

+1

Don’t look like mole or rabbit holes. Too big for voles. Too tidy for fox. Common things being common, rats until proved otherwise.

Tim

[Roger Mills]

Not sure they're big enough for rabbit holes - but you could find out by pouring boiling water down them and seeing whether any hot cross buns emerge.

[Jethro_uk]

Don't they have ticks these days ?

[Davey]

My advice to the OP would be to invest in a trail camera. Motion-sensitive, stills and/or video, day and night. With mine, I just remove the memory card and slot it into my PC to view everything on it.

[Jim GM4DHJ ...]

some sort of holes I think

[Marland]

Got fed up with doing that, though I still use a couple of traditional trail cameras like that I have now got a couple that as the area of concern is covered by our WIFI they can be accessed through it. They still have a card but you can play back, extract ,delete, or watch in real time indoors on a PC or I Pad. And i can view them from anywhere with internet access or phone signal so they can also be positioned as security cameras if we wish. The models I have are Naturespy . Saves having to go out in the rain etc . Obviously you need to have WIFI coverage of the area.

GH

[Davey]

I'll take a look at that brand, thanks.

[Marland]

Only caveat I would add is they don’t trigger quite as fast as normal trail cameras as there are no side sensors to prearm but for most things they are fine if positioned carefully. Also had the occasional lock up which was cured by replacing the supplied memory card with a good branded one.

GH