The Llangollen Canal

 Bee fly. I love them.

 Definitely vole feeding. Water vole? Or field vole?

 This burrow is the right size for water vole.

I found myself on a stretch of the Llangollen canal past Ellesemere where I knew there was a history of water vole presence, so I stopped and had a look. The signs weren't quite as definitive as last time, but there were quite a few burrows of the right diameter - think Pringles tube - and some definite feeding. However, it's not just water voles who cut stems at 45%; field voles do too, and there were also field vole burrows. So this is a site to watch, I'd say.

Canal Edging - what's Good and Bad for Voles

 Male beautiful demoiselle

Back at The Narrowboat pub today to take another look at those canal banks. The sections with steel shuttering/palings up against the soil are useless for water voles because you can't make burrows in metal. But I'm pleased to say there are stretches of the canal where, although the banks have been reinforced, it's with a waterproof fabric and wood, around which the voles can work. The photos show how they've swum underneath the wooden railing and made themselves little shelters between the wood and grass.

Another way of helping water voles to at least travel along sections of shuttered or concrete canal in safety is to install coir rolls along the bank sides, as the wildlife trust have done here:  http://www.wandletrust.org/?p=838

Beyond Ellesmere

 Burrows along the tow path

 Droppings and trackways

 A feeding station

 Near Maestermyn Marine 

The one-eyed vole and her baby, at Edgeley Road

After a report from a friend on Twitter - hooray for social media and wildlife networking - I took a trip out along the Ellesemere-Whittington road and checked out the Llangollen Canal there. On each side of the bridge were lots of burrows, and unusually they were on the tow path bank, right where people were walking. I didn't have time to sit and watch for actual voles, but I wonder how habituated to human presence this colony is.