Holes in lawn

Susienearly65

Hi everyone, hope you are all well. Haven’t posted for a long while as we’ve relocated to a retirement flat with no garden of our own.
we have a communal garden and aren’t allowed to plant anything in it but a strange circle of holes has appeared in the lawn, about 3ft radius, five holes, quite deep, each about 3” round. Started off with one hole, now increasing. It’s not moles, no soil above ground.
could be rats but the circular pattern is strange, no droppings or other clues.
we are stumped, rats are a possibility but have seen no evidence.
can anyone suggest anything. 

Ceres

Without any animal droppings it's going to be tricky to come up with an answer to this one.

wild edges

Anyone in the community got a pegleg and a habit of walking in circles? Retired pirate maybe?

Susienearly65

Thank you wild edges, brilliant suggestion, hadn’t thought of that. There are some strange people living here, total culture shock! but as Ceres said it’s a difficult one with no clues. We have foxes but the holes are far too small. We have squirrels but again no sign of nuts being buried. We are lucky to have a huge, protected mulberry tree outside our flat which is always full of green parakeets and other birds but I can’t imagine they make holes in the lawn. We also have seagulls, being so close to the sea but we’re not allowed to feed the birds , sad but that’s life. We have one, Cedric, who knocks on my window, I do leave water out for him and he sits on my patio with me and we have great conversations, oh dear, I think living here is having an effect!
thanks again for suggestions, take care all.

Ceres

It sounds as though you have more rules than they have in school.

AnniD

I wondered if it was voles, but l like the idea of a retired pirate with a peg leg! 

Susienearly65

You’re right Ceres and we’re paying a service charge here, we didn’t have to do that at school.
i have sneaked a lean to greenhouse on the side of the flat no one can see and I do have my own patio which is filled with pots, not allowed to grow veg but in true Geoff Hamilton style I’ve hidden some tomatoes and salad and herbs among the flowers.
we’ve also installed our full size table tennis table in the communal lounge and our 15ft canoe is parked in the car park.
i’ll be outside the head teachers’ office soon to get detention!

Susienearly65

We thought maybe Voles but not sure if they would make such large holes.

PeggyTX

Do you have gophers in the UK?  We do on our rural property in Central TX.  They make holes about 3-4" around, with dirt excavated out all around the hole.  But there would be tell-tale tunneling rises in the soil moving out from it.  You usually notice the tunnel's soft dirt underfoot walking around long before you see the holes.  They build quite a network of tunnels.   We drove down to our cabin this week and something dug a hole right by my very young moringa tree and ATE IT!  Gophers eat plant roots, so I'm sure that's my culprit.  The buggers are very hard to get rid of.  This article tells you how to tell gopher (vs. mole) holes with photos:  http://thegopherguy.com/pages/pestid.html

yorkshirerose

Not a pleasant thought, but could it be sinkholes? Are you on gypsum which is prone to the occurrence of holes suddenly appearing. Might be an idea to get a professional opinion.

Dovefromabove

Fortunately no gophers in the UK @Peggy in Texas ... you can keep ‘em 😉