I took a professional ecologist to see the colony at Mossfields today, because the site's teeming with water voles and it's stuffed full of textbook field signs that he was keen to see to gain survey experience.
It is an amazing place.
All along the course of the L-shaped ditch there are large water vole feeding stations - literally too many to count - and water vole droppings and latrines. They are everywhere you look and impossible to miss. I've only included a selection of the dozens of photos I took, but they show without a shadow of a doubt that there's strong water vole activity on this site.
This is important because Shropshire Council are allowing a big building development to happen here, and obviously there are tight legal restrictions on how you treat land where water voles are present. So we're all keeping an eye on the progress and detail of the planning application, to ensure no laws are broken.
I hope they voles are left alone. In 2009 a colony of Water Voles was moved so that work could get away building the new Everton Stadium. I recall the relocation work went on for a good few months and then after all that the stadium never got built. They should have left them alone after all.
ReplyDeleteYou can read about it on the following URL: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/water-voles-moved-everton-fc-3446449
Thanks for that, Ian! There are ways of mitigating and looking after water voles during building development, but of course you can only do that if you appreciate the voles are there. That's why it's important to record all sightings.
ReplyDeleteI did find the follow up article which confirmed that the voles had been moved out (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/water-voles-living-kirkby-land-3438788)
ReplyDeleteNot sure where they went to in the end, hopefully somewhere peaceful.
Cheers.
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