Scrub what I said about watercress

My, how you've grown

It's a while since I've seen Spot, and I can't get over how much he (or she) has grown. We're now talking proper adult size, which is about the length of a juvenile guinea pig. I note the activity's now switched to the other side of the bridge, which makes me wonder whether he's the only vole on this stretch at the moment, or whether he's invaded another vole's territory. I haven't seen another adult since mid-September, but there continued to be a lot of runs and burrows appearing which I'm pretty sure weren't made by Spot; he was a) too small and b) living up by the pipe during that month.

Best Time to See Water Voles

Can you see the vole in the picture above? Click to enlarge and you might just be able to make him out at the bottom. Fantastic camouflage!

I was asked this evening by someone: when's the best time to spot voles? The question came just as I was trying to focus my camera against the gathering dark, so if that person's reading this blog, sorry I didn't explain very clearly, and I'll put a more coherent answer here.

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In terms of year, spring to early autumn are the best months for vole-watching. May's an especially good month because the vegetation hasn't gone too mad but the voles have been out and breeding for a couple of months, so you have a chance of seeing babies and juveniles. By July/August, a lot of the water is hidden by leaves and rushes. But September can be another decent month, because the vegetation starts to die back and more of the bank is visible. I've never seen a vole between mid-November and the end of January: that's when they spend most of their time underground.

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In terms of time of day, there's no straight answer. I'm tending just now to go at dusk, which at the moment is about 6pm, but in the spring and summer the voles can pop up at any time - morning, afternoon, early evening. This chap - who may or may not be Spot - surfaced at 6.15.

What's been eating water vole on the Prees Branch Canal?

A water vole claw? Plus a rodent leg bone, I think.

Whose scat?

Water vole feeding, with a dropping deposited on a stalk nearby.

Water vole feeding

Went down to check the rafts today and found plenty of water vole feeding all the way from Waterloo to Whixall marina, but also this scat which contained fur, what might have been vegetation, bones, teeth and (water vole?) claws. Mink scat's supposed to smell really foul, but this didn't; it smelt musty, mushroomy, or like an old damp cupboard. So I'm thinking - hoping - it's polecat, which we do have in the area. Mink scat often contains fish scales and fishbones.

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Although polecats do eat water voles, and it's a shame to find evidence of a dead vole, I'd rather it was due to a native, in-the-balance predator than a mink. I'm waiting to get some other views on identification.

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Update on the scat: the Mammal Recorder for Shropshire thinks fox, and so does my friend on the Wild About Britain forums. Coincidentally, I went to the garden centre this afternoon and took a moment to study the ferrets they have in the pet section. Their scat is thinner, twistier and pointier than the stuff I posted above, so I think I was off the mark when I said 'mustelid'.

Growing Up

Had to lighten these shots so they're a bit grainy, but Spot's only coming out at dusk this week. He looks significantly bigger than when I first saw him, which is good. Towards this end of the year I've noticed they don't eat so much water cress; maybe they're after foods with a higher nutritional content?

Back to the usual poor standard of photographs

Is it Spot? I don't know, he wouldn't come out. Another couple of weeks and, if the last two years' patterns are anything to go by, I won't be getting any sightings till February/March 2009. Water voles don't hibernate as such, but they do retreat to their burrows for most of the daily winter routine.

A lovely crop of fly agaric under the trees at White Lion Meadow!

Unnerving

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It's unnerving, in some ways, seeing the same vole over and over again. When you don't recognize individuals, you can kid yourself there might be lots of them. And there might be others, it's just that I haven't seen an adult since the middle of last month.

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One of the ways you can tell Spot's a juvenile is the size of his feet in relation to his body (they're massive). It's easy for me to see he's small because I watch him in context; at the moment he looks more like a field vole.