Gearing Up

Burrow about the diameter of a Pringles tube.

A vole from last year.

Diagonal-cut thick chunky plants are a reasonable indicator of water vole feeding. 

Starry prints.

Water vole field signs at this time of year, in my experience, are quite subtle. Neat burrows appearing at the edge of the water course are the main ones to look out for, and starry pawprints in the mud, and a general vole-scaping of the banks. It tends to be next month when I start to get sightings and that latrines appear. However, a quick scout round the field off Edgeley Road reveals a couple of droppings on a sandbank, which might develop into a latrine when the breeding season gets going.

Carnivore Survey

Suspect these snails have been eaten by voles.

Field vole latrine

Field vole burrow - with close-cropped lawn around the entrance!

 I thought only water voles made lawns like this.

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Bagging up and labelling the otter spraint.

Gareth Parry and members of the Shropshire Mammal group are studying the impact of carnivores on water voles this year. Today we warmed up by taking a look at the profile of the brook as it passes through Whitchurch Country Park (Greenfields Nature Reserve). No obvious water vole signs, but the site's teeming with field voles and we also found otter, badger and fox scat along the same stretch.

Voling 2012

 Whose prints?

 Whose burrow?

 Whose feeding?

Took a walk down to the fields on either side of the railway track to see if anything was stirring yet. There are prints - but are they rat? And burrows - ditto. Plenty of feeding signs, too, but that could be field vole (I saw a field vole run past as I was peering down a bank).
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Time will tell. Weather/temperature permitting, I'd expect to see water vole latrines appearing within the next couple of months. They are the best indicator of w-v presence, bar an actual sighting.

Small mammals on Whitchurch nature reserve.

Field vole.

Bank vole - slightly browner coat, slightly longer tail.

Wood mouse.

A closed trap usually means there's something inside.

Carefully separating the two chambers. The animal can be in either the front or the back one.

Bait and bedding used.

Release! (Always into the same area where the mammal was found.)

Small-mammal survey at Whitchurch County Park (Greenfields Nature Reserve). The Longworth humane traps yielded seven out of ten positive results: three bank voles, three wood mice and a field vole, though at Whitwater fishery there were also shrews and a toad!

The traps were baited with moist apple, carrot and raisins and peanuts, and also casters which you need in case a shrew enters the trap. Soft grass and mossy bedding is added to keep the animal warm. The traps are put out the first night and left open, then set the second night and checked early the following morning. Longworth traps separate into two chambers: separation is done carefully over a bucket so the mammal can be contained whilst its species is checked.

Lots of small-mammal captures mean a healthy ecology so it was great to see so many on the reserve. I was especially interested to compare the field vole and bank vole as they're very similar in size and shape.

Handy tick list added later after discussion with friends on the Wild About Britain website:

Field vole (top)

short tail,
grey/light brown coat,
ears tucked in behind long shaggy hair,
long shaggy hair on back

Bank Vole (bottom)

Long tail,
redish brown/grey coat,
ears stick out
Tidy fur
Partially larger eyes

Both are evolved to fit their separate niche in the environment.

(Many thanks to Dogghound for this.)

Country Park

zicrona caerulea

Candlesnuff fungus

Shaggy parasol

Field vole feeding and droppings.

Spraint is in the middle of the photo. As is often the case, it's glittery with fish scales.

No obvious evidence of water voles, but otherwise the nature reserve is thrumming with life. A walk to check on the Dexter cattle this afternoon yielded sightings of a goldcrest, a red admiral, a grey squirrel, a field vole and four types of fungus. There was otter spraint under the bridge, and the pond dug out a few years ago by Whitchurch Water Vole Group is full of field vole feeding stations.

Funky Fungus

Crested Coral

Armillaria (mellea)

Two clumps of Amethyst Deceiver.

Beautiful autumn colours and shapes in a beech wood near Heptonstall, Yorkshire.

End of the Season

Adult vole, off Edgeley Road

Juvenile vole (note large feet)

Latrine at Black Park Road

I checked Black Park Road and the stretch near the railway bridge and found a few signs which makes me think the colonies here have also had a stable year. The back of Waylands Road is so overgrown I can't get down to investigate, but if there are voles at the Homebase end, and voles at the Edward German Drive end, there ought to be voles in between.

In summary, then, all the areas I monitor seem to have done well in 2011 except for Brick Kiln Farm and Mossfields (the back of Saddler's Walk): both sites suffered through lack of rain, I suspect. There's been some sort of incident or crash on the Prees Branch Canal nature reserve too: my bet there is mink, and who knows whether that site will recover. On the plus side, the Country Park's made a strong recovery and I've seen more water voles there than ever before. Even though we've had very few sightings for White Lion Meadow, I believe there's still solid vole presence there but the lushness of the vegetation nowadays hides the banks and the stream. There could be herds of voles under there!

These chaps pictured above will probably be my last sighting of the year as it's getting too cold to sit still by the stream for long, and anyway the voles tend to move underground as winter approaches. So as usual, this blog will go into semi-hibernation till the spring, when I'll start again with a round-up of news on all the local colonies.