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The diary of a water vole colony
Labels
- adder (4)
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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
6 comments:
Oh so cute! I had a brief view of a different, smaller individual, here in Cambridge on Wednesday - first saw its back end disappearing into a hole, then waited and sure enough a little face soon appeared at a different hole, and tentatively sniffed the air. Had binoculars with me, so nice views of it cleaning its face with its paws, much the way that hamsters do. No luck today, Friday - sat waiting for 30 mins, but not even a rustle. I did hear the wonderful sound of a great spotted woodpecker drumming nearby though! And saw moorhens mating among the celandines.
Yes, I sat for half an hour in the afternoon and forty minutes the day before that with zero results. It's all the nicer when they do show, though. And time spent sitting quietly outdoors is never wasted. Well done on your sighting!
Having sat and waited at least 30 mins, in the sunshine, Fri, Sat and Sun, with no luck, it only took 5 mins in the cold today for great views of the smaller vole, including a quick swim!! Just saw him/her dart into a hole, then he/she ran along a sort of tunnel just behind several holes in an ivy-clad mound - a really good profile view, only about 3 metres away from me. Then the quick dip, and off under the brambles again. Nice to be able to do a small detour and see something so lovely on the way back from Sainsburys!
Aw, good stuff! Are you going to try and get a picture? I saw a large adult w-v this afternoon, but it was gone before I could focus my camera.
No suitable camera equipment in working order at the mo I'm afraid - but, as per your experience, I think it would have all been a bit too quick for me to have got focused in time (and I would have kind of "missed out" by being behind the lens). It would have been some photo, trundling along the tunnel however! I think that has been scoured out a fair bit by flood water. Hoping this smaller w-v is a female, a mate for the b-i-g alpha male (he is a whopper!) How long are they supposed to live BTW? It said "5 months average" on Wikipedia.... that seems a bit tragic. Some must last longer. Really enjoying looking through your blog and at all the lovely photos :-)
The 5 months statistic is skewed by the high mortality rates in the young. Generally we say adults live for about 18 months - they die in their second winter.
Hope you do get some pics, and you can share them.
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