White Lion Meadow vole (next to the car park at Tesco)
Pringles-tube-sized burrows at Greenfields (Whitchurch Country Park), the railway bridge near Homebase (Railwayman's Cottage), Broughall, Black Park Road and Edward German Drive.
Feeding, plus the only latrine I've seen so far this year (at Edward German Drive)
There are signs along the whole of this stretch.
Not a water vole, but a bank vole (I think) which swam out in front of me in the Country Park, and paddled about for a while.
The photo's poor because the light levels were low, but it was great to watch this healthy-looking water vole yesterday evening. At long last burrows are appearing, but not really any latrines yet. The Whitchurch water voles are really behind in their schedule this year. Let's hope the warm weather spurs them on.
3 comments:
Wonderful! I'll bet you're thrilled. Thank you for posting the pics of the burrows in situ and also a wider shot of the stream- very helpful for ID purposes here.
That's the sort of water I always associate with them...not pristine stretches of river, rather drainage ditches on industrial estates and next to sports centres!
Yes. I think river-flow can be too fast, and also linear waterways can leave them open to predation by mink. So little ditches and side-streams are better. They don't seem to mind human presence at all. That said, this particular stretch is full of litter and a disgrace, and sometimes that leads to rats.
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