Colemere

Tortoiseshell

Red Admiral

Dragonfly (Southern Hawker?) at Colemere

Burrow at Edward German Drive

Feeding at White Lion Meadow

Droppings at White Lion Meadow. Despite the light green colour, these were definitely water vole because of the size.

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Survey today at Colemere, near Ellesemere. Our group didn't find any water vole evidence, but we did see a toad, a field vole and a lot of dragonflies, butterflies and damselflies. Not sure yet how the other groups got on.

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On the way home I checked White Lion Meadow car park and found feeding and droppings, despite the downpours and fluctuating water levels of late. A stroll up Edward German Drive revealed several burrows (for scale, think of a Pringles tube) and some feeding.

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Update regarding the other survey groups' results, from Malcolm Monie's report: Some signs were found in and near the Roden itself in the Wolverley area, but at a low density. Upstream, the brook flowing out of Colemere was examined and despite good habitat, no water vole signs were to be found. A survey 3km farther downstream revealed just one site where a couple of burrows and possible water vole feeding signs were found, as distinct from field voles which were present on the same stretch.

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We think mink presence plus only intermittently suitable habitat are the key issues.

Gotcha!

water vole latrine in a field at Colemere

water vole feeding station, near Colemere
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Managed to spot a newly-emerged, just-about-to-take-flight dragonfly in our pond; the chaps on the Wild About Britain forum have identified it as a Southern Hawker, even though it hasn't got its full colours yet which I thought might make the job tricky. I also collected up all the exuviae I could fine to send to Clive Dean, Community & Conservation Officer, Countryside Service, Shropshire County Council, and reported my sightings to the County Dragonfly Recorder, Sara Bellis. http://www.atropos.info/dragonfly.html

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Yesterday, while surveying an area near Colemere, we saw not only Banded Demoiselles http://www.wildliferanger.com/users/www.wildliferanger.com/upload/Banded%20Demoiselle%20007%20243.JPG but Beautiful ones as well, male http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1396/542416712_c6600afa3b.jpg?v=0 and female http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/photos/cavirf1.jpg. As Clive says, you should report everything! We found a few signs of water voles near Colemere, so they are present but probably need some help with habitat improvement.

Last night's dragonfly action

At midnight last night I went into the garden to cool down and found this dragonfly in the process of emerging. The photos aren't brilliant because of flash, but at least I got the main stages. I'd love to have stuck around and seen what colour it became, and also to check it managed to fly away unscathed. But this morning the exuvia's empty, and there's no sign, so who knows? We're aware of about ten dragonflies hatching this year, but I bet we've missed some. Not bad for a small garden pond.

Dragonfly

Thanks to John and Rosie for the photo

Alarmed woodmouse, in the ditch near Grocontinental

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Another day spent anxiously watching a hatching dragonfly, except this story doesn't have a very happy ending. The dragonfly seemed to get stuck with just its head out - was in that state for eight hours - and then disappeared, exuvia and all. Presumably a bird took it. We've seen three other empty cases, plus there's at least one other live nymph in the water, so all's not lost, but it seems a shame that after two years preparing for adulthood, the dragonfly should fall at this last hurdle.

Happy to be wrong

Dead dragonfly we found floating in the water - maybe a female Emperor?

Nymph climbing the reed in preparation for splitting. Or not.

Dragonfly nymph in the water

("You ain't seen us, right?" - adult frogs in my pond)


Froglet in the brook at Edward German Drive

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Various latrine shots - click to enlarge.

Went down to the car park this afternoon and glimpsed a vole almost straight away. As I was trying vainly to get a shot, a man walked past and called to me that he'd seen one there last Sunday. So fingers crossed they'll be back out and posing soon.
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Last night I followed a tiny stream though a field near my house and found the banks to be absolutely full of latrines - almost too many to count - so that must mean a very healthy colony. It's nice to know somewhere's doing so well.
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Today's excitement was the finding of a dragonfly larva clinging to one of the reeds in my pond. I was convinced I was going to get some fantastic shots of the adult dragonfly emerging, but all that happened was it sat for half an hour, then slipped back into the water. Sigh.

Temporarily voleless

I don't know what's going on at White Lion Meadow. We've only had one sighting in the last month, and even taking into account the lushness of the vegetation, that doesn't seem right. I've found a little bit of feeding, and there's still the areas of squashed grass, but that's all.

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So photos of actual voles may be hard to come by for a while. Instead I give you: w-v droppings from the ditch near Grocontinental; an empty dragonfly-larva case (exuvia) from my pond; and this young fox who waited patiently for me to sort my camera out before moving on. He may have been hoping for a bit of the apple I was eating!