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").
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The diary of a water vole colony
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About this Blog
This blog charts the fortunes of water voles in and around the Whitchurch area, North Shropshire. Water voles are one of the UK's most threatened mammals, extinct in many counties, and so it's vital they receive as much monitoring and protection as there is going. Here in Whitchurch we're lucky enough to have them right in the middle of town - how cool is that?
Links
- Wood Lane Nature Reserve at Ellesemere
- Wildlife Kate (not me!)
- Whitchurch Water Vole Group
- Views of the Ock - another water vole blog
- Terry Whittaker's wonderful vole photos
- Shropshire CC countryside information
- Richard Steel's wildlife photographs
- Out and About nature blog
- Jo Cartmell's shiny new Water Vole Info site
- Gilly Otter's lovely blog
- Derek Gow, Water Vole Expert
- Countryside Tales
- Contact the Environment Agency about river pollution here:
- Careering Through Nature
- Beautiful French wildlife blog
- ARKive short video clips and photos of water voles
Blog Archive
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2008
(128)
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September
(18)
- Spot
- Little starry feet
- Ditch
- Whitchurch Country Park and Greenfields Nature Res...
- My little friend again
- Nippy
- Juvenile
- Sunshine!
- Like the Muller advert
- The importance of field signs
- Hedgehog again
- Comparison of field vole and water vole latrines
- Kingfishers
- Lessons in hedgehog
- Actvity
- A Vole of my Own
- Shifting Voles
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▼
September
(18)
6 comments:
What wonderful photos and cute critters you've posted here. Your site was a real treat to stumble across. Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work! :-)
Thanks! We're coming up to the lean months - not much vole action ges on here between November and February - so I'm making the most of these last balmy days.
That's very interesting!
I still think he's a cute little critter, that I just want to cuddle with!
Have a Great Day!
I've fallen in love with Spot, he's so cute. (Is it a he? Can you tell?)
I gather the way to sex water voles is to put them head-first in a Pringles tube and, while they're immobilized, have a look at the distance between their openings. So no, I've no idea whether Spot's male or female. Adult males have a slight ruff round their necks supposedly, but it's hard to appreciate such subtleties when you're out in the field. And anyway, Spot's only a youngster.
I've tried really hard not to anthropomorphize on this blog, or to cutesify the voles, but it's a struggle when they're such appealing creatures. Being realistic, the chances of Spot making it through to next spring are slim - winter mortality rates are extremely high - but we can always hope.
Hoping Spot, and as many of the others as possible, make it. Will look out for a ruff or lack of one, in future photos, thanks!
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