Voles and Vole Signs

 

White Lion water vole.

Water voles have nibbled this celandine.

The beginnings of a feeding station, and grazing.

Toads

Water vole-feeding

Comma butterfly

Stonechats

A Few Birds

 

Snipe and a nuthatch. Also saw my first Brimstone butterfly of the year.

First Water Vole of 2022, at White Lion Meadow

 

Poor photo because of failing light, but here's my first sighting of 2022.

Below, grazing and a burrow at Edward German Drive.

Male stonechat.

An Appeal - Can You Leave a Comment?

If you have a moment, please could you raise your concerns about this development at Jesus Green, Cambridge? It has the potential to harmfully impact a long-established colony of water voles, and as we know, every time we lose a colony, it can bring down others by weakening the meta-population.

Here is the comment I left on the council planning consultation page:

The College side of the stream is undisturbed by people at the moment and it is the side that the water voles use most. Works done to this side, especially at the time when water voles are breeding, will be harmful. The timing therefore is completely inappropriate and this disturbance could seriously damage a legally protected species.

The contractors must make sure they do their absolute best to minimise impact on voles - both during any works plus the necessary regular maintenance of the area. At time of writing, there are lots of fresh water vole excavations in the far bank!

The two main points are that the timing of the works is wrong and harmful, and that the work will be started on a bank where water voles are actually present right now. If you can leave even a couple of sentences on the Planning application about this, I should be very grateful. The consultation closes very soon.

You have to register but that only takes a minute, then you can leave a comment here: Comments

Thank you!

A Few Water Vole Signs

 

Curlews in a farmer's field.

Coal tit and red kite.

Jelly ear fungus.

Red deer stag.

From top to bottom: male chaffinch, singing blue tit and male stonechat.

Super-bold grey squirrel.

It's great to see water vole droppings because they're fairly unmistakable. The pay prints look nice and starry too, which is an indication of vole rather than brown rat.