Great crested and common baby newts at Brown Moss
Water vole droppings
Blocked up burrow
It's more or less time to say goodbye to the voles for this year - I did spot one briefly this morning, but mostly they're packing away in preparation for the winter. They'll be storing high-calorie tubers and blocking up strategic burrow entrances, as in the photo above. Very little sign of feeding, except for gnawed iris roots, but are still plenty of droppings about, so I know the voles are around.
Looking forward to speaking at Walford College's Bioblitz this afternoon with Rosie Rees and Lorcan Adrian, stressing the importance of reporting sightings and disseminating vole information between various parties - landowners, the EA, the council, water authorities, the WT etc - and also the need to protect wildlife corridors as well as individual colonies themselves.
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