Bonus Vole

Another of John Harding's lovely photographs, to keep us going till the spring.

Christmas round-up

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Tree-removal at White Lion Meadow.

A small feeding station under the pipe at White Lion Meadow.

Feeding by the pipe at White Lion Meadow.

Strimmed, but some cover left.

Over-strimming? No water vole signs here at the moment (there were plenty in the autumn).

A tiny amount of diesel in the water - ditch near Grocontinental.

Burrows and a slipway

Prints on the less-strimmed side of the ditch near Grocontinental. Rat prints are similar, but I think the star-shape indicates water vole as more likely.

So first, that tree work at White Lion Meadow. As I said in the comments of the previous entry, I'm fairly sure this opening up of the bank sides will be helpful to the voles. Yes, they did eat the willow leaves and pollen off the catkins, but there's another willow a few yards further up providing more than they can possibly consume. The main thing is, now the banks have more light, more cover and food will grow. And if you're going to do maintenance like this, then this time of year is good. I went down today and found fresh feeding up near the pipe, so there are still water voles active in this section.

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Secondly, to this news report of a diesel spillage into a stream on the outskirts of Whitchurch: http://www.shropshirestar.com/2008/12/18/lucky-escape-in-lorry-crash/ . I know the stream mentioned, but we've never surveyed it so I don't know what kind of damage the diesel will have done, and I don't know where the stream leads. There's no trace of oil at WLM, and only a tiny bit in the ditch near Grocontinental. Either those sections don't meet up with the polluted stream, or the prompt action of the Environment Agency stopped the diesel in its tracks.

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If you ever spot water pollution, especially near water voles or other fragile species, please contact the EA immediately via the link on the right hand side of this page.

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Finally, I post these photos of the strimming work and water vole signs at the ditch in the field near Grocontinental. I would say one's been strimmed well, and the other over-strimmed. There's no water vole evidence at all, no prints or burrows or feeding, on the barer side. But on the other, where more vegetation's been left, there are active-looking burrows, vole-nibbled juncus, and footprints.

Spot's dinner?

I've never seen a water vole during December, but here's what looks like recent feeding I found just now while picking litter. A good sign, I think.

Water voles on tv tonight

Possibly. They're in the trailer, anyway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wildaboutyourgarden/

Looks like a good series!

What do water voles do in the winter?

A Cromford vole taken by John Harding last month

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Water voles don't hibernate as such, but they do spend much more time underground during the winter months, eating food they've stored eg tubers. Field signs virtually disappear, and the White Lion Meadow banks seem deserted.

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So this blog will, like the voles, go quiet till the spring, when I hope to bring you more news on the colonies round north Shropshire. Will Spot make it? Statistically, the odds are stacked against him - winter mortality rates are very high for water voles - but let's keep our fingers crossed, and hope he's back in the picture next February/March.

Scrub what I said about watercress

My, how you've grown

It's a while since I've seen Spot, and I can't get over how much he (or she) has grown. We're now talking proper adult size, which is about the length of a juvenile guinea pig. I note the activity's now switched to the other side of the bridge, which makes me wonder whether he's the only vole on this stretch at the moment, or whether he's invaded another vole's territory. I haven't seen another adult since mid-September, but there continued to be a lot of runs and burrows appearing which I'm pretty sure weren't made by Spot; he was a) too small and b) living up by the pipe during that month.

Best Time to See Water Voles

Can you see the vole in the picture above? Click to enlarge and you might just be able to make him out at the bottom. Fantastic camouflage!

I was asked this evening by someone: when's the best time to spot voles? The question came just as I was trying to focus my camera against the gathering dark, so if that person's reading this blog, sorry I didn't explain very clearly, and I'll put a more coherent answer here.

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In terms of year, spring to early autumn are the best months for vole-watching. May's an especially good month because the vegetation hasn't gone too mad but the voles have been out and breeding for a couple of months, so you have a chance of seeing babies and juveniles. By July/August, a lot of the water is hidden by leaves and rushes. But September can be another decent month, because the vegetation starts to die back and more of the bank is visible. I've never seen a vole between mid-November and the end of January: that's when they spend most of their time underground.

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In terms of time of day, there's no straight answer. I'm tending just now to go at dusk, which at the moment is about 6pm, but in the spring and summer the voles can pop up at any time - morning, afternoon, early evening. This chap - who may or may not be Spot - surfaced at 6.15.

What's been eating water vole on the Prees Branch Canal?

A water vole claw? Plus a rodent leg bone, I think.

Whose scat?

Water vole feeding, with a dropping deposited on a stalk nearby.

Water vole feeding

Went down to check the rafts today and found plenty of water vole feeding all the way from Waterloo to Whixall marina, but also this scat which contained fur, what might have been vegetation, bones, teeth and (water vole?) claws. Mink scat's supposed to smell really foul, but this didn't; it smelt musty, mushroomy, or like an old damp cupboard. So I'm thinking - hoping - it's polecat, which we do have in the area. Mink scat often contains fish scales and fishbones.

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Although polecats do eat water voles, and it's a shame to find evidence of a dead vole, I'd rather it was due to a native, in-the-balance predator than a mink. I'm waiting to get some other views on identification.

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Update on the scat: the Mammal Recorder for Shropshire thinks fox, and so does my friend on the Wild About Britain forums. Coincidentally, I went to the garden centre this afternoon and took a moment to study the ferrets they have in the pet section. Their scat is thinner, twistier and pointier than the stuff I posted above, so I think I was off the mark when I said 'mustelid'.

Growing Up

Had to lighten these shots so they're a bit grainy, but Spot's only coming out at dusk this week. He looks significantly bigger than when I first saw him, which is good. Towards this end of the year I've noticed they don't eat so much water cress; maybe they're after foods with a higher nutritional content?

Back to the usual poor standard of photographs

Is it Spot? I don't know, he wouldn't come out. Another couple of weeks and, if the last two years' patterns are anything to go by, I won't be getting any sightings till February/March 2009. Water voles don't hibernate as such, but they do retreat to their burrows for most of the daily winter routine.

A lovely crop of fly agaric under the trees at White Lion Meadow!

Unnerving

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It's unnerving, in some ways, seeing the same vole over and over again. When you don't recognize individuals, you can kid yourself there might be lots of them. And there might be others, it's just that I haven't seen an adult since the middle of last month.

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One of the ways you can tell Spot's a juvenile is the size of his feet in relation to his body (they're massive). It's easy for me to see he's small because I watch him in context; at the moment he looks more like a field vole.

Spot

Little starry feet

I've posted before about the characteristic star-shaped footprints water voles often leave in soft mud. The second photo down shows the splayed toe formation of the hind foot very clearly (as modelled by "Spot").

Ditch

Finally managed to get a photo of one of the voles that live in the ditch near Grocontinental. These are the ones who use a nasty old bit of polystyrene (top photo) as a latrine!

Whitchurch Country Park and Greenfields Nature Reserve

Wildlife volunteers planted these apples for the water voles.

Click to enlarge and see all the cut-off stalks - classic water vole.

The steps through the woods which volunteers installed earlier this year.

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My friend at White Lion Meadow.

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I was astonished and dismayed to hear a local councillor refer to Whitchurch Country Park this week as "a complete disgrace". Volunteers have been working all year on the nature reserve, installing steps and handrails, a cattle drinker, a pond, information boards and seating, amongst other improvements. I wrote earlier this year about the amazing diversity of wildlife to be found around this area of the Staggsbrook, and the richness that leaving a small wild area creates. Today, for instance, the place was full of butterflies, even though we're into autumn, and there's still water vole feeding to be seen. I can't tell you how beautiful the place is, and how many people enjoy visiting it.