We've always felt at the Whitchurch Water Vole Group that Whitwater Fishery was probably the most important site for w-vs in the area.http://staggsbrook.blogspot.com/search/label/Whitwater%20%28Hickory%20Hollow%29
But increasingly I'm wondering whether the field off Edgeley Road, where I've had almost all my sightings this year and last, is at least as important a colony - possibly even more so given the way it links other key sites. Although the stream's barely a dribble, the swampy grassland surrounding it is more holey than a Swiss cheese and you have to be really careful where you tread for burrows and trackways. There are latrines every couple of yards, and as I walked down one short length of the bank tonight I heard four separate voles plop into the water. The stream itself forms a kind of T shape and I've only explored the stem; currently the branches of the T are so overgrown that the banks are impenetrable. All the evidence suggests they're just as heavy with voles as the rest, though.
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Here's a summary of my sightings from the last few months:
8 comments:
Kate, Super work. I'm hoping you can go to my blog to look at my efforts to save a vole colony in Banks, Lancs. Peter (l.e.g))
Would love to. Can you give me a link? At the moment when I click on your blog title is says I'm not allowed to see it.
Hi Kate, thanks, I think I have fixed it, please have a look we need advice on saving these voles, or rather we would like to share our expeirnces and let the world know in order that others can be saved from developers bulldozers.
It looks as though you've contacted just the right people. What about Natural England and also the council who gave planning permission? I think the latter have some legal reponsibility? I'll have a chat to seom friends and get back to you.
Thanks Kate. What they have done is to try and remove evidence BEFORE they put in the planning. The land has good chance of passing planning, but harder if the voles are present, so overnight and on weekends they set about filling in and bulldozing the habitat, hoping no one would see it. Same developer who tried to do it on another site. We are worried they will get away with this. How can we prove they have buried the voles? Do we ask they dig out and find the animals. Whats the point of the law if they can do this? They should be fined!
Have you got photos of the latrines? Or any historical records of water vole presence? (Check with your local wlidlife trust, for instance.)
No work should be being done till planning consent has been given. What did the police have to say when you contacted them? There are lots of examples of developers having to halt work and of councils being fined for breaking the law in this regard - it does happen.
Hi Kate, could you post on our blog site, it would be better as I feel I Hijacked your thread!
I cant get close enough to acess latrines, though the time I took the origianl pics, I found some droppings which I placed a 50p piece next to, size and smell fitted profile of vole, as did burrow size/lack of piled up earth outside burrow. Local records indicate voles within 10M of site. I have copy of this report. Planning is not required to fill pond in 'apparently'
Filling in the pond was against the law and could result in the developer's vehicles being impounded and their being fined. Please speak again the the police.
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