What's making these holes in my pots ??

Hi everyone,
I found a couple of these holes before, but ignored them, but they're becoming more frequent and today I have 4 holes in different pots in my garden.
They're about 1½ inches across, angled downwards and in one of them, the culprit has kicked the soil out up against the inside corner of the pot.
Some of these pots are fairly tall, about 18 inches tall, standing alone.

It can't be anything too big, as we have movement sensor cameras and lights covering the garden, situated
low down and they go off if small birds land in the garden.

Does anyone know who the culprit could be?

 

My guess is rats.

 

Thank you. I did worry as I have hunting dogs and they did catch 2 rats running across our patio, a few years ago. They were quite big however and set off my camera.
How would they get into tall pots? Can they really jump that high ?

 

Rats. mice . voles or squirrels (if you have them). I would have thought the camera would catch rats or squirrels. Some small rodent or shrew perhaps.

 

Rats and mice can climb up most surfaces … and rats can jump quite high … the way the spoil is fanned out from the hole looks typically rat to me, but perhaps it could be voles … what plants do you have in the pots? I’d give them a really thorough soaking … rodents like dry warm places for their nests … that’s probably why they’ve gone for pots … so much dryer than the ground this year.

 

Thank you. I have wondered, just not sure how voles or shrews would jump into my tall planters as there's nothing to launch themselves from lol interesting.

 

Ah OK, I wasn't aware of that. It varies what's in the pots. I have many acers, azaleas and I've actually forgot the name of the plant in the picture I posted. ‍

 

Could it be one of these? I was puzzled by the interest the foxes were taking in my pots, but then I worked out that the magpies were stashing food there and the foxes could smell it. The foxes tend to poke their noses quite deep into the soil leaving a hole like that. I have stuck some sticks into the affected pots to make it more difficult for the magpies to access, and that seems to have solved it.

 

Is it possible for you to move the cameras to see if they can capture anything ?

 

When we have pots with bulbs in them the squirrels are the culprits.