Hooray for the Country Park

Female vole, I think, attending her latrine (off Edgeley Road).

The vole at Greenfields.

Water vole feeding signs.

Amazing encounter with a water vole last night: I'd taken my son to Greenfields Nature Reserve (Whitchurch Country Park) to see if he could catch some stickleback. While he was getting his net ready, I had a quick look at the banks and saw straight away some nibbled vegetation that looked water-voley, and then I found a feeding station. Well pleased, I led him down under the concrete bridge to do some fishing.

We'd only been there five minutes when a large vole shot out of the water right by our feet - see photo above - ran along the bank and then swam around coolly for a while before disappearing off downstream. At exactly the same time, a common shrew dashed along the ledge opposite.

This is all very good news as last year mink cleaned out this colony, and this particular bridge was marked by lots of mink scat. I really hope we can keep the mink from coming in off the canal this summer.