Monday 26 May 2014

The Dairy Voles at Mile Bank, and the Importance of Brownfield Sites


 The wetland area by the old dairy at Mile Bank


 Water vole droppings in this area


 Great Crested Newts

 Toad

 Smooth Newt




 Four photos showing rubbish under which the Great Crested Newts were hiding.


 Baby smooth newts



This site at Mile Bank is up for a big housing development, so the builders had better be extremely careful to stay within the law. Not only are there Great Crested Newts on site, but water voles as well, both of them fully protected species. It is a terrific wetland area so I presume the developers as part of their mitigation measures will be creating replacement habitat elsewhere, or preserving these marshy sections and incorporating them into the new estate.

1 comment:

WendyB said...

I saw 2 newts amongst the water weeds at the far end of the vole ditch last Friday (a friend saw 5 the next day!) They seemed to hang there lazily, but zipped off ever so quickly when disturbed. They look quite different and more 'solid' and robust somehow, in your photos, on dry land. I think the ones I saw were the common/smooth ones. They were quite plain and dark on top but with paler spotty legs. Maybe young ones? Gorgeous little creatures!