Out at Coton

 Water vole from Edgeley Road

 Reed NOT eaten by voles - end cut straight.

 Reed eaten by water voles - 45 degree cut at the end

 Advanced poo-spotting

 Ideal habitat

 Albert looks down a burrow and comes nose to nose with a vole

Very freshly dead water vole. We don't know what killed it.

A positive day's surveying out in the Coton/Whixall area. We had three live sightings, and found evidence of water voles across the three lots of land we examined, some areas being richer than others. Three ponds we looked at had voles living in them, even though some of the banks were quite shaded. 

The ditches proved more variable: where there was plenty of vegetation and no weeds had been sprayed, the voles were active and happy. But where the ditches had been dredged and the cover removed, and there was evidence of herbicide use, the results were poor. Careful management of the land is crucial if we're going to help this animal survive, I think.

Winning your poo-spotter's badge.

Spotting water vole droppings is a really important skill for surveyors, since it's probably the most unambiguous sign of the animal's presence. Latrines, eg photo 2, are often fairly easy as clumps of pellets tend to stand out (unless they've been well-trampled, in which case look for a small patch of soil that's differently-browner than its surroundings). But individual droppings are tricky to see against a bare bank. Can you see the poo in photos 3 and 4? Once you've spotted a place where water voles like to come and mark, then that's a good place to wait with your camera.

Suddenly, latrines!

The three photos above show fresh water vole latrines

Rather upsetting to find a dead vole on the bank, but whatever's killed it has pretty much eaten it all up. 

Goldfinch

Tree creeper

Courting hedgehogs.

The latrines have been late coming, but suddenly they're to be found all over the place which means breeding's under way as females mark off their territories. I've witnessed a bit of fighting too.

White Lion Meadow 2013

I knew the water voles had retuned to White Lion Meadow, the main town car park in Whitchurch next to Tesco, because I'd seen a latrine by the bridge (second photo down). But it's always nice to get an actual sighting of an animal, as I did just now. The first sighting for WLM this year, in fact.

Took the opportunity to have a stroll along the brook at Edward German Drive too, but couldn't see much activity yet bar a few droppings on a stone (fourth picture) near the road end.

Wonderful Book About Wildlife

The paperback of Hugh Warwick's The Beauty in the Beast is now out and you can buy it at your local indie bookshop, at the big chains, or here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Beauty-Beast-Favourite-Creatures/dp/0857203967/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1367398095&sr=1-1

What's lovely about this book is not only its uplifting and good-humoured tone, and the fact it contains an entire chapter on the Whitchurch Water Voles, but that the new edition contains a foreword by the groovy Dr Brian May. You can read it on Hugh's blog here: http://www.urchin.info/2013/04/a-truly-royal-endorsement/

In other news, my rescue-hedgehog has now been released and seems to be staying around the garden. I marked him plus another hog who visits, so I can keep tabs on them both, and last night yet another unmarked hog was at the dish of peanuts and mealworms. I am reporting all sightings to http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/ - really important they get this sort of information so they can monitor the true rate of decline in the species and take some steps to tackle it.

I also had a water vole sighting yesterday, but only a flash so no photo.

New Film about Whitchurch Water Voles

From UK360. Thanks to John Harding and Rosie Rees for their excellent footage and editing, and to Roxanne Pointu and Media Trust.

First Garden Hedgehog of the Year

The guy in the shed's still quiet, though. This year I'll try and report all my sightings to Hedgehog Street: http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/