Thursday 7 August 2008

Crawling with Water Voles

A vole's eye view of the brook - ideal habitat!

Where one burrow is sited.

An active burrow.
Feeding.

Some fresh and some older droppings.
Incredibly productive survey day. Rosie, Jill and I took a quick look down Edward German Drive and found feeding and burrows on the Waymills side, plus this latrine (photo above) directly opposite Griffiths Tool Hire.
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Then we went, at the invitation of the landowners, to look at the section of the brook that runs by the railway line after it's passed under Station Road. I knew there were water voles in this stretch because I've seen and photographed them recently (http://staggsbrook.blogspot.com/2008/07/new-area.html ). But the brook here must be stuffed with water voles. Every few paces I found feeding, and there were fresh latrines and active burrows and even footprints, all textbook evidence of a strong water vole colony.
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Worryingly, developers want to build a drain right on top of a burrow - where I'm standing in the second photograph down. According to the new protection laws, though ( http://naturalengland.communisis.com/naturalenglandshop/docs/ne86.pdf ) I can't see how this could be allowed. It's something I'll have to look into.

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