Holes in lawn

Thanks again.
No evidence of the culprits as yet ....
If it is foxes, anyone know of a deterrent?

We have holes and this evening I watched two magpies and a squirrel in different parts of the lawn (where holes have appeared) so think they are the culprits. My dog and cat were going mad at the back door and I couldn't understand why until I looked out to see the lawn being attacked ?

The holes look too big for birds, and too small for badgers, possibly rats, if so rat droppings are easily identifiable However I would bet on foxes, how about a vixen with cubs, as anyone with chickens knows, a vixen feeding cubs is very persistent.

Squirrels - we have holes all over our lawn.......sometimes they even remember to put a Conker or beech nut in them! ?

Thank you all for your replies. No definite answer or solution.....
The holes still keep on appearing - between a dozen and 20. They are about 3” or 4” deep, some less so and between 1” and 4” diameter.
I’m going to mention this on a local neighbourhood site and see if any of our neighbors have experienced similar.
Will report back if I find out more.
Cheers, everyone

Might be foxes or badgers looking for chafer grubs - we have chafer grubs under our turf but nothing has dug for them - yet. There are brownish/yellow areas on our lawn which is probably from chafer grubs eating the grass roots.

My first thought was a Hedgehog. They dig for worms and slugs. As its been quite dry they may have to dig deeper to fond them.

We had a problem like this and it turned out to be badgers who were digging for crane fly larvae. Although the lawn was a bit of a mess we had hardly any daddy long legs in the house that year!

We experienced something similar a few weeks ago; there was a mound of very sandy soil alongside a "burrow" that was maybe 2 inches diameter across the opening. I flooded this with water and the following morning all the wet earth had been excavated again. We left it alone for a few days and then scraped the loose soil back into the hole.

Fast forward two weeks and whilst I was watering the veggie patch I discovered a small rodent basking in the sunshine on the garden path, in fact I almost stepped on it! I left it alone and then noticed another one scurrying towards the lavender patch. Seemingly they were voles. We have no infestation in the shed or garage so we've left them alone, everything has to live somewhere after all.

This is interesting. Happening to us too. Complete mystery. Never happened before, as others are saying too This thread has suggested some possibilities. H thought badgers. No droppings but scratch marks. Ours is a 'shallow' layer of grass/moss.

We get this too. With us it is foxes.
Next door will insist on feeding them but it is our lawn they destroy!

We have the same in our garden. I looked it up on line and I think they are made by voles. I put mouse traps next to the holes but caught nothing, so have removed them. They are still there and there are more so what to do, if anything.

It's almost certainly a dinner hole.

It could be made by any number of animals, as it's difficult to guage the size.

I would be inclined to do a night watch to view and photograph the culprit if I was unable to set up a video to record the night action.

Do let us know what it was.

That picture doesn’t look like chafer grubs to me, we had them last year.

Some bumble bees nest in holes in the ground. I was most surprised to see one emerge once from our lawn, and so I looked it up!

I think it’s chafer grubs being dug up by birds.

I have them as well and think that it's an emerging Devil's Coachhorse beetle . I hope the birds gobble them up , they terrify me !

Sounds like an interesting variation of creatures!

Exactly the same happening 8n our garden for the first time ever

These holes were appearing overnight so not squirrels or birds as they are curled up in bed.
My fox visitors dig holes in my lawn to bury food in and to dig worms up to eat. Not great, especially as it’s a new lawn but I’d rather have my animal visitors than a pristine lawn so I put up with it and fill them in each morning.

Moles/Vowels/Squirrels.
We have holes thanks to squirrels,but they have to live i suppose.

We had a similar issue and discovered it was crows pecking for chafer grubs. If you dig down a few inches you may find one, they are creamy white and absolutely enormous and I guess a delicious treat for a bird.

Magpies has been suggested to me. Apparently there's a particular grub they seek out at this time of year.

We too have holes. Ours are made by a squirrel- or maybe several.

Last night on Gardeners World, Monty Don demonstrated how to easily make turf to repair patches of damaged lawn. Maybe it's worth a watch?