In Happier News: Spring!

 The colony off Edgeley Road is really getting going.

 Mystery bird - probably a lesser redpoll but possibly a linnet?

 Blackcap (male)

 Bramblings

 Otter spraint under the bridge at Quoisley

Frogs spawning in our pond.

This last six weeks we have had three new species of bird in the garden (see above); this is on top of the usual greenfinches, goldfinches, siskins, blue tits, great tits and coal tits, nuthatches,starlings, blackbirds, song thrushes,dunnocks and house sparrows, wood pigeons, jackdaws and crows. It's also been spawn time for the frogs - twenty one clumps of spawn so far - and at night the lawn's been covered in common newts.

Just one familiar face missing from all this spring revelry and that's the hedgehog. The one in the shed's either dead or still hibernating, and I haven't seen the compost heap hog about either. However, this afternoon I did spot what I think is hedgehog scat by the bird bath, so I'm putting the trail camera out tonight along with the usual saucer of cat food.

Mustelid Action at Quoisley

Old otter spriant

Not sure what this is: it's definitely mustelid, but had no detectable smell so could feasibly be mink.
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Here's a busy place! After the comments on my last post, I went to take another look at Quoisley. I don't bother with this area much because I suspect there are now mink around that section of the canal and therefore no water voles: Malcolm Monie and I surveyed several ditches there last summer and drew a blank.
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However, the bridge looks as though it's a very ottery spot, judging by the amount of spraint on the kerb under there. That's probably good news for water voles, in that the theory is otters drive away mink. While otters do take the odd vole, they don't go through a whole colony and wipe it out the way a female mink does.

Quoisley Bridge

Another vole at Yockings Gate this evening, obligingly swimming up the centre of the brook for quite a distance.

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Then I went to have a poke around the ditch between the canal and the A49 by Quoisley Bridge, because I've often driven past and thought it looked a likely spot. A path's been cut by a wide mower, but at the end of this section where the weeds have been left waist-high, there were two feeding stations. Given the scale of the pieces, I'd say these are definitely water vole and not field.

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So a new area to keep an eye on. This makes up for the fact that I had a look the other day round Dearnford fishery and couldn't find any signs at all, despite the fact there were plenty of voles last year.

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But colonies move around, and wax and wane, and an area that's not occupied this year might be full again the next (and vice versa).