End of the Season

Adult vole, off Edgeley Road

Juvenile vole (note large feet)

Latrine at Black Park Road

I checked Black Park Road and the stretch near the railway bridge and found a few signs which makes me think the colonies here have also had a stable year. The back of Waylands Road is so overgrown I can't get down to investigate, but if there are voles at the Homebase end, and voles at the Edward German Drive end, there ought to be voles in between.

In summary, then, all the areas I monitor seem to have done well in 2011 except for Brick Kiln Farm and Mossfields (the back of Saddler's Walk): both sites suffered through lack of rain, I suspect. There's been some sort of incident or crash on the Prees Branch Canal nature reserve too: my bet there is mink, and who knows whether that site will recover. On the plus side, the Country Park's made a strong recovery and I've seen more water voles there than ever before. Even though we've had very few sightings for White Lion Meadow, I believe there's still solid vole presence there but the lushness of the vegetation nowadays hides the banks and the stream. There could be herds of voles under there!

These chaps pictured above will probably be my last sighting of the year as it's getting too cold to sit still by the stream for long, and anyway the voles tend to move underground as winter approaches. So as usual, this blog will go into semi-hibernation till the spring, when I'll start again with a round-up of news on all the local colonies.

Grocontinental, and Edward German Drive

Female water vole in the field off Edgeley Road (adjacent to the Grocontinental colony).

The Grocontinental ditch runs by the tree line.

Yes, there's a stream under here! Fantastic cover keeps the voles safe and gives them plenty to eat.

Part the vegetation to find grazing. Remember to cover up again afterwards.

Feeding station.

More grazing (click to enlarge). Can also be field vole, though, so check for latrines.

Old latrine with dried-out droppings. It's always worth checking old bits of wood.

The lorry park is very close to the banks.

Fresh water vole droppings, at the Edgeley Road end of the water course.

Lorry park on left, cement factory on right, stream in the middle.

Finally managed to battle my way down the public footpath at the back of Waymills Industrial Estate to check on the Grocontinental voles. I was able to find latrines and feeding right along the whole stretch up to the cement factory, which is a relief after the diesel discharge from the lorry park earlier in the year. Interestingly, though, the one section where I couldn't see any evidence of water vole presence was where the diesel was at its worst, pooling and contaminating the banks. Such pollution seems to have a definite detrimental effect lasting for months. Another concern I'd have is the amount of rubbish finding its way into the stream from Grocontinental's lorry park. Some may have got blown in, but some of it's clearly been chucked over the fence. It would be nice if the firm did a litter pick from time to time.

Later in the day I checked on Edward German Drive and there were plenty of feeding signs there, too. So I'm happy that these two colonies have had a stable year.

Saving Species on Radio 4 is here!

The programme aired this morning, and the link is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014fd21 The piece about Whitchurch Water Vole Group comes about 16 minutes in.

Getting Colder

GCN at Brown Moss

Brown Moss Toad

Not sure how many more nights of voling there are left in the year. It's getting pretty cold to sit still on the bank with my camera for any length of time.

Winding up the year

Wee field mouse who jumped in our bird food bin.

It's the time of year when I check up on all the local colonies and see how they're doing. So far I've had a look at the field behind Saddler's Walk, or Mossfields as it's known, and also at Mike and Carolyn's voles out at Steel Heath. In both cases there was some feeding but no obvious latrines: I suspect both ditches have suffered through lack of rain this summer. However, there clearly was some water vole presence, so that's encouraging.

Magnificent

This sparrowhawk landed in our garden yesterday tea time and was so busy devouring a starling I was able to get within arm's length of her.

Weight

Juvenile water voles like this one above must weigh between 140-170g to survive the winter.