Out at Coton

 Water vole from Edgeley Road

 Reed NOT eaten by voles - end cut straight.

 Reed eaten by water voles - 45 degree cut at the end

 Advanced poo-spotting

 Ideal habitat

 Albert looks down a burrow and comes nose to nose with a vole

Very freshly dead water vole. We don't know what killed it.

A positive day's surveying out in the Coton/Whixall area. We had three live sightings, and found evidence of water voles across the three lots of land we examined, some areas being richer than others. Three ponds we looked at had voles living in them, even though some of the banks were quite shaded. 

The ditches proved more variable: where there was plenty of vegetation and no weeds had been sprayed, the voles were active and happy. But where the ditches had been dredged and the cover removed, and there was evidence of herbicide use, the results were poor. Careful management of the land is crucial if we're going to help this animal survive, I think.