Colemere

Tortoiseshell

Red Admiral

Dragonfly (Southern Hawker?) at Colemere

Burrow at Edward German Drive

Feeding at White Lion Meadow

Droppings at White Lion Meadow. Despite the light green colour, these were definitely water vole because of the size.

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Survey today at Colemere, near Ellesemere. Our group didn't find any water vole evidence, but we did see a toad, a field vole and a lot of dragonflies, butterflies and damselflies. Not sure yet how the other groups got on.

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On the way home I checked White Lion Meadow car park and found feeding and droppings, despite the downpours and fluctuating water levels of late. A stroll up Edward German Drive revealed several burrows (for scale, think of a Pringles tube) and some feeding.

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Update regarding the other survey groups' results, from Malcolm Monie's report: Some signs were found in and near the Roden itself in the Wolverley area, but at a low density. Upstream, the brook flowing out of Colemere was examined and despite good habitat, no water vole signs were to be found. A survey 3km farther downstream revealed just one site where a couple of burrows and possible water vole feeding signs were found, as distinct from field voles which were present on the same stretch.

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We think mink presence plus only intermittently suitable habitat are the key issues.

Gotcha!

water vole latrine in a field at Colemere

water vole feeding station, near Colemere
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Managed to spot a newly-emerged, just-about-to-take-flight dragonfly in our pond; the chaps on the Wild About Britain forum have identified it as a Southern Hawker, even though it hasn't got its full colours yet which I thought might make the job tricky. I also collected up all the exuviae I could fine to send to Clive Dean, Community & Conservation Officer, Countryside Service, Shropshire County Council, and reported my sightings to the County Dragonfly Recorder, Sara Bellis. http://www.atropos.info/dragonfly.html

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Yesterday, while surveying an area near Colemere, we saw not only Banded Demoiselles http://www.wildliferanger.com/users/www.wildliferanger.com/upload/Banded%20Demoiselle%20007%20243.JPG but Beautiful ones as well, male http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1396/542416712_c6600afa3b.jpg?v=0 and female http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/photos/cavirf1.jpg. As Clive says, you should report everything! We found a few signs of water voles near Colemere, so they are present but probably need some help with habitat improvement.