Saturday 20 May 2017

Baby Slow Worm





Slow worm blending beautifully with its surroundings.

 Raft spider: the UK's biggest species of spider.


It was brilliant to get out on a proper, planned survey day with other vole enthusiasts and do some habitat assessment. We looked at a long ditch on Whixall Moss, and found one end full of water vole signs and the other full of field vole. The records were collected and will be stored and shared by the Wildlife Trust, Natural England, and other environmental groups.

3 comments:

Le Pré de la Forge said...

Hi... still following your blog and learning.
Not a sign of water voles along the mill stream here...
but at the end of May last year we had one of the worst floods in sixty years... according to our French neighbours...
and all but the highest points along the banks were underwater.
I fear that the young and females were drowned in the burrows...
and out in the meadow...where we have loads of common voles and some field voles... nada... not a thing!
And we haven't seen a Kingfisher along here since then, either!!
We wait for a "normal" Summer or two.....

Kate said...

That's very concerning. I really hope enough survived to build up a colony again. Let us know if they do.

Le Pré de la Forge said...

Kate.... I will, worry not. I am keeping my eyes open....
we are near the end of the Aigronne... some 40 kilometres above us... not including the many tributaries... including the Remillion, which has White-clawed Crayfish and River Lamphrey.... the upper reaches and tributaries were not much affected.
Therefore, I have hope that both voles and kingfishers will return.