The Team

Just filled a black bin bag with what was immediately around the bridge. Yuk. Strong wind and rain carries debris down to the area, and the foul weather's also meant I've missed a few weeks litter-picking so the mess has really built up. The grass, brambles and nettles have mostly died back and every sweet wrapper, every discarded receipt is on full view.

Anyway, it's slightly better now, and on the field signs front there are some good clear hind footprints in the mud on the car park side, about six feet upstream of the bridge.

(Gordon Woodroffe, in The Mammal Society's booklet on The Water Vole, says field signs virtually disappear over the winter. But it's been so mild we've had blue tits looking in our nest box! Latrines don't appear till the breeding season, apparently, and as for feeding stations, eating will be taking place mostly underground till the vegetation gets away again, I'd have thought.)