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Do moles have eyes? I love the pictures of the babies they're soooo cute!

Looking forward to it!

Two weeks ago my mother-in-law had a duck nesting on 12 eggs, outside her front door. She checked the eggs one night, and the following morning every egg had been taken. There were no signs of disruption or debris from the eggs. There is a fox run nearby. Would the fox have carried away all 12 eggs without leaving a trace?

I have never seen a mole before and this morning I found a dead one, courtesy of our cat. If they don't ever leave their holes, how on earth did he catch it?

Wow fabulous little creatures...one night in my garden I felt the earth move beneath my feet...and up popped a mole! it was a beautiful sight!!

My cat brought in a Live Mole a few years ago and it was running around the Living room floor. If moles never come above ground, how on earth did she catch it?

I hope you can answer the question! :)

I have a question about peacocks and need some help! A wild peacock flew into our castle grounds a few months ago and has settled with us. I arrived home tonight though to find him with one of the pheasant chicks in his mouth!! I am worried incase he has eaten it!! as we have hens that eat mice etc and I dont know what to expect from the peacock... I hoped you could give us some advice thanks...Mary B

I was told that if mole hills are in a straight line then they are made by a male but if they are all over the place it is a female under the ground.
Is there any truth in this?

Just seen the marvelous footage of the mole in its natural habitat. They must have a great tolerance to high CO2 levels if their tunnels have no access to the outside. I guess this tolerance is much higher than e.g. rabbits, who spend a long time in burrows?

Loving martins new hair cut.

I work on an organic farm in Totnes and in the last two weeks we have found two dead moles in the fields where there is no livestock, they have no damage on them at all. what do you think is killing them?
Paula
Exeter

Fantastic first show. Chris, Michaela and Martin work brilliantly together. Glad you're letting Chris do plenty of the scientific details - it adds such a lot, and it's great to see him getting enthusiastic! (Grin).
Would love to see more on the moles (that bit was fab) particularly how they fit into ecosystems - farmers hate them but I'm sure they must have a part to play in the ecosystem and maybe their tunnelling is actually good for the soil?? Would love to know more.
Keep up the great work!

Fascinating footage of the mole. We found a dead headless one in our garden and are very curious as to what creature could have done that?

My young sons fished a mole out of the Llangollen Canal when we were on holiday. The poor thing was exhausted and was still swimming in our hands. We popped it into a nearby hedgerow to recover. I dont know if it survived, but we hope so.

Dear Chris. We are on Cakewatch and that was not a vanilla slice, but a Bakewell slice.

About 30 years ago when I was 8 years old we had a mole living in my garden, my parents were quite keen to get rid of it as it was making molehills all over the lawn. One afternoon my dad notice some earth rising up and there was the mole making a new hill! My dad grabbed his garden spade and fork and somehow managed to block the mole's path and dig it up alive. We put it in a bucket with some earth which it obviously tried to burrow into; I remember being surprised at how small it was and that the poor little thing seemed to be shaking with terror. We took it over the road and released it in the fields opposite our house, I picked it up out of the bucket and put it on the grass and it ran off with the acceleration of a 100m sprinter! Seeing the piece on Springwatch today has made me think I must be one of very few people ever to have handled a live mole!

Have you ever heard a mole? About 2 years ago my cat brought in a live mole which shrieked so loudly - like a mouse multiplied tenfold!! It escaped and hid under the piano. Have you ever tried to rescue a mole from under a piano?? Eventually I managed to extricate the shrieking animal and return it unharmed to the field at the back of the house.

I have lots of molehills, just like the field you filmed in, but on Dartmoor. How many moles are there (approx) in such an area, and do they operate as a group, like rabbits or as lone individuals?

How come on the graph tonight that showed the feeding pattern of the nuthatchers there was a gap in Sunday..?

why do bumble bees fight to the dead ? this happened in front of me yesterday in my garden
I have a nest in my compost heap bin so why do the do it as it seems very strange

I was very interested to see the footage about moles and it reminded me that I've been trying to find out something for years. I was once told that male moles make their hills in straight lines and female moles make their hills rather randomly - is that true ? I am a bit suspicious about this information.
Looking forward to hearing the truth.

We think our blue tits chicks fledged during the day today as they are no longer in the nesting box, yet their parents came back to the box tonight with food! Can anyone explain what has happened please?

Excellent first programme! and I never thought I'd say that! No messing about, giving us information as if it really mattered (which of course, it does!); as ever, superb filming, with the promise of even better to come ( insect world- brilliant!). Please keep up the standard - it was a pain having to record the programme and fast- forward through the rubbish!

Mr Peckham......your undoubted genius was brought to question las night....vanilla slice??? it was obviousely a mr kipling cherry bakewell :)

Brilliant mole footage. Just curious to know how the cameraman in 1967 got that shot of the nest? Presumably he dug it up? Not recommended these days I would imagine.

Hello peeps,
I have been feeding my garden birds for many years & am usually inundated with Tits,Finches,thrush, sparrows,Robins etc. However a pair of very vocal Magpies have taken up residence in the tree next door & now the small birds won't come into the garden...Please help!!! :(

A couple of weeks ago I saw a mature mole on the surface, on the periphery of a local football pitch, where there is much mole activity. It was not near a mole hill and I could not see a hole from which it might have emerged. Any thoughts about why it was there?

In May of 2011 I was walking in Millers Dale [in the Peak District] and saw a mole on the path beside the River Wye. My 50 second video of the mole is here ~ ...

With regard to moles:
This is a link to a newspaper discussion generally in favour of killing more moles. The suggestion that moles lead to listeriosis and sheep abortion seems like special pleading. Is it really necessary to kill more moles just because of a few heaps of soil on lawns?

@ number 28:

I like your video Charlie, but I'm guessing that that is a Water Vole rather than a Mole. I don't think your subject had a long enough nose to be a Mole, and it was next to a river of course.

Glad you like my video Four_Winds. I think we might have to agree to disagree on what you say. The animal I filmed had got large front paws and was also the right colour for a mole. I've seen plenty of water voles (not so many lately) and they were quite different in colour.

I agree it was strange to see the mole (assuming that's what it was) on the path by the river. How it had got there I don't know.

Perhaps one or two other people could have a look at the clip and see what they think.

Several years ago, in Spring, I was sitting in my garden when I was astonished to see a mole walking down the path in broad daylight. It came to one of our small ponds whereupon, without hesitation, it plopped into the water and swam a perfect breaststroke (those large hands were made for it), emerging on the other side where it disappeared into the vegetation. Needless to say I didn't have time to get my camera. I thought I might be the first person to see a swimming mole but I notice two other contibutors saw moles in or near water.

I was once sitting quietly fishing on the River Dove when I became aware of a little rustling sound behind me. I was amazed to see a Mole pop out of the bank and then roll down the bankside almost to me feet! I instinctively made a grab for it to study the sweet little thing, and no sooner had I got my hands on him when he promptly sunk his teeth into my thumb! Then in total shock (and pain!), I dropped the little critter and was amazed to see him burrow frantically into the earth and disappear literally in seconds! Great fun!

hi, just to tell you that around 15 years ago i had a family of 10 fox cubs in the back garden. the mother would bring them out at around 5 in the evening to play and laze around the large pear tree. During the day she would come out of the den under the shed and come down the garden to take carrier bags of rubbish from my bin ( the days before wheelie bins). She would carry them quickly up the garden unopened not even looking what was inside! just take pot luck. Sainsburys or Safeway she was never fussy:). With ten to feed i suppose she just took her chances. from Marilyn Davis.

i love moles although i have never seen a real live one before, i think once my cat brought one back but it was dead. i wish i could see one! i love spring watch and i watch it every year! :)

Moles are brilliant! I think more should be done to make people aware of their presence. I can't say I'm and expert, but I would love to know more as they fasinate me! :D
Charlie, your video is great, it must have been amazing to see one so close, as most people don't see one at all. Like others here, I've only ever seen one dead.

Thanks,
FlightSwallow123 :)

my husband has worked with moles since he was a lad theres not much he dosnt know about them he has filmed them photographed them all sorts they certainly do come above the ground as he has taken me to watch them eat worms on a wet night in on the grass (such a romantic date that was ha ha) i would think he would help you out in any way if you wished to get a little further knowlage with proof not just hear say all the best dawn

It is true that moles do come above ground occasionally. I saw one while cycling, crossing a small road up in the Yorkshire Dales on a late sunny summer afternoon- no doubt that it was a mole rather than a vole.

Thank you Flightswallow123 ~ glad you liked the video. I've actually seen moles above ground at least a couple of times other than the one I filmed. They move a lot faster than you would imagine too.

charlie wildgoose, that's definitely a mole, fab little critter and great bit of footage - so lucky.

i did my dissertation on moles and soil but never got to see one, not for want of trying, only a dead one sadly.

despite all my research i never read anything about males making hills in straight lines etc, tho' that doesn't mean it isn't true.

great to see moles on springwatch at last!!

We have just found a mole running around our garden, what was it doing above ground?

How do moles get round a down pour of rain.
It has rain for days at a time recently

Thank you nellystuff ~ I make a point of having a camera with me all the time, just in case.

Hi re the Mole could anyone please tell me what is the name of the winter coat of the mole, thank you

if moles spend all their time underground why don't they suffocate, and how do they cope when it rains a lot and the ground is water logged

When I lived in S. Humberside some 25 years ago my 2 cats used regularly to leave dead moles on the kitchen floor for me to find in the morning, so the moles must have been above ground for the cats to catch them. The cats used to bite the heads off birds and leave live baby rabbits hopping round the kitchen but the moles were just killed, never eaten or otherwise injured. Are the unpalatable to cats?

I love the baby moles the are really cute

Moles are my very favourite animal, but I've never seen a live one. The Springwatch footage was fantastic - thank you so much.

moles have been helping archeaologists in Northumberland at Epiacum roman fort by digging up artefacts where human digging is not allowed! The hand with the bead is mine!
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