Round-up

It's a quiet time of year for vole-watchers, but there's still the odd bit of news to catch up on.
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Only just got any kind of real response from SWT re the mink raft prints I reported on Oct 22nd, and then it's to say they don't know what the prints are and can we carry on watching. So that's what we'll do.
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The trolley at White Lion Meadow has finally been removed after spending almost four weeks in the water, and I notice that Whitchurch Tesco has installed some of those expensive new trolleys with wheels that lock at a certain point, meaning they can't be taken off the car park. They can still be pushed down the bank, though! So someone's spent an awful lot of money to no effect, because if the situation continues then the store is still open to prosecution. Remember my analogy about an engineer asked to build a dam but instead putting up a summer house and insisting it would do the same job? Well this time they've effectively added a weathervane on top and net curtains.
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What beats me is that if they had the money to spend on a re-fit, then why not go for the relatively cheap and effective option of coin-release trolleys? It makes no sense at all.

Well blow me, water voles eat snails.

Took a trip to the Prees Branch canal to check the rafts: more minky prints, unfortunately. Hope SW will get on the case next week.

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We also found several water vole latrines, some evidence of feeding - and some interesting food choices. I didn't know till I just checked now that water voles eat snails, but there were piles and piles of empty ramshorn shells, often near cut grass and vole droppings. There were also little piles of acorn shells: do water voles eat acorns too?

Worrying Tracks

Checked the cartridges at the Prees Branch canal today and saw what looked like mink type prints. We've reported them to the Wildlife Trust and are waiting for their thoughts.

This morning we laid two mink rafts on a stretch of canal as a monitoring measure, and while we were there we did a survey of the banks. Viv and Colin from Shropshire Wildlife Trust used the boat to view the extreme edge of the vegetation, and Albert and Malcolm investigated from the path side. Plenty of latrines and feeding stations, I'm pleased to report, and several burrows, some of them into clumps of reed rather than earth. Last year SWT members planted apple trees at intervals to provide extra food for the voles, and all the saplings were looking healthy.

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Meanwhile, John Harding and Rosie Rees filmed the activity for posting on Youtube. Here's another of John's clips of the Whitchurch water voles in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10xb-FbDDtM
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Oh, and the trolleys are gone from White Lion Meadow: I assume it's the council I have to thank for this. Well done NSDC.