Belton Farm

Terrific habitat above - lots of cover and food for voles, silty stream-bed.

 



 Not so good for voles: stony stream-bed.

 

 

Three lots of nibbled snails. Who's eating these - field voles, water voles or rats?

 Trackway by the water's edge. It's a good idea to look here for prints and droppings.

 



 Edgeley Road vole

 

 Water vole 'lawn' round burrow entrance.

 

 Mallard nest

 

Very small frog

 

Lots of good signs on this morning's survey near Belton Farm, which is next to the large vole colony at Whitwater fishery. But not all the habitat is right for water voles as some of the banks are shaded and don't have enough vegetation, and not all of the stream has mud at its bottom (which water voles like to kick up as a screen to hide from predators). Lots of evidence of field voles, though.