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The diary of a water vole colony
Labels
- adder (4)
- Ash (1)
- bank vole (6)
- barn owl (3)
- bat (1)
- Belton Farm (1)
- Bettisfield (1)
- Black Park Road (31)
- blue-green algae (2)
- Brick Kiln Farm (5)
- Broughall (12)
- Brown Moss (5)
- burrow (107)
- burrows (2)
- Chester zoo (4)
- Colemere (2)
- Coton (1)
- council (37)
- Criftins (1)
- ditch near Grocontinental (45)
- ditch near Lidl (2)
- dormice (1)
- dragonfly (6)
- Edward German Drive (73)
- Ellesmere (2)
- Environment Agency (31)
- feeding (143)
- Feeding station (83)
- field off Edgeley Road (425)
- field vole (44)
- Fordhall Farm (2)
- gardening (3)
- Grange Farm Ash (2)
- Greenfields Rise (1)
- Griffiths Tool Hire (3)
- Grocontinental (2)
- habitat (2)
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- mating (3)
- Mile Bank Road (7)
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- mole (1)
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- plate (3)
- polecat (4)
- pollution (3)
- predator (51)
- Prees Branch Canal (35)
- Prees Heath (18)
- Prints (101)
- Quoisley Bridge (3)
- Raft (25)
- railway bridge by Homebase (42)
- rat (51)
- red squirrels (1)
- run (1)
- Saddlers Walk (23)
- Shropshire Wildlife Trust (4)
- Sighting (706)
- skull (2)
- snake (5)
- sparrowhawk (1)
- Steel Heath (6)
- stoat (7)
- timber yard (61)
- toad (5)
- trackway (5)
- vole spoon (4)
- water level (11)
- water shrew (15)
- Wayland Road (9)
- Waymills (6)
- weasel (7)
- Wem Moss (2)
- Whitchurch Country Park (64)
- White Lion Meadow car park (near Tesco) (427)
- Whitwater (Hickory Hollow) (3)
- Whixall (6)
- Whixall Moss (22)
- wood mouse (4)
- Wybunbury Moss (5)
- Yockings Gate (18)
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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2009
(101)
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April
(19)
- Fordhall Mystery
- Assortment
- Black Park Road
- Rat holes and vole burrows
- Fellow Blogger
- Car Park
- Latrines as an indicator of water vole numbers
- Feeding herself up
- More nesting (and swimming)
- Comparison between rat and water vole droppings
- Meanwhile, back in the car park
- Saddlers Walk
- New ditch
- Vole of the day
- Activity at the Prees Branch Canal
- White Lion Meadow mystery
- Better Frogs
- Greenfields Rise
- Size
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April
(19)
6 comments:
You do seemed spoilt for Water Voles. So far here in Oxfordshire I've only found circumstantial signs of feeding.
Any news on Spot?
Sadly, no. It was a very hard winter, and mortality rates are so high.
I spend literally hours a week looking, and spend far more time drawing a blank than seeing something. Have you contacted the wildlife trust re good places to watch water voles? Or take a trip to Cromford - the voles there are practically throwing themselves in front of your camera!
I have done many Water Vole surveys for the Wildlife Trust and drew many blanks.
Fortunately about 500m from where I live there is (was?) a Water Vole colony.
There does seem to be signs of feeding, so perhaps they survived the winter flooding.
Perhaps, I'll start a blog as well....
Be sure and let me have the link if you do! The main purpose of this blog is to provide records, so if colonies are threatened by (for example) developers, I have evidence of water vole presence. But I also saw it was a way of bringing together water vole information and contacts. If we could build up a network, so much the better!
I'm thinking, it's unlikey there's just the one colony near you. Have a look at ditches and ponds in the vicinity, too. W-vs do seem sometimes to live in the most unpromising, unlikely places.
Are you 'Views of the Ock'? I tried to leave a comment there - fantastic work! - but I just kept getting an error message. I've bookmarked the site, anyway.
Yes, 'views of the ock' is my blog, thanks for the encouragement and at last I have a water vole picture on there now.
I'm going to follow your advice and start exploring the surrounding ditches and brooks.
Not sure why the comment wasn't working, but I have had some problems with the links to Google Maps, which I've now fixed.
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