Edgeley Road Sighting

 A stoat swimming across the canal!

Below, a timber yard vole.

 Latrine at Yockings Gate

 White Lion Meadow vole

 Burrow at Edward German Drive, with grazing.

 Edgeley Road vole, near the railway bridge.

 Feeding and prints.

Out at Yockings Gate

 The brook as it passes through Yockings Gate, coming down from Blakemere. 

Lots of vegetation to hide in and eat means happy voles!

Water vole droppings at the timber yard

 Feeding at the timber yard

Edgeley Road vole

I haven't had a clear sighting of a vole at Yockings Gate, but when I was up there last something was hunkered down in the vegetation, chewing a stalk of reed noisily and in a way that made the stalk fall like a tree being felled. That's water vole, for sure.

Similarly, it's been a few weeks since I had a sighting at the timber yard or White Lion Meadow, but there's vole-feeding and -poo about, so I know they're there!

End of Season Round-up, Part 1

Droppings at Broughall

 Edgeley Road vole

 Three sets of droppings from Edgeley Road

 Feeding and droppings at Mossfields (Saddler's Walk).

Latrine under the bridge by the car park at White Lion Meadow (near Tesco)

Sightings are hard to come by now, as the population disperses, but the field signs show a presence on many sites. The colony at Mossfields (Saddler's Walk) seems steady - this will need a special eye keeping on it when the land is developed for houses. Broughall is busy with voles and I'm not surprised as the habitat there is excellent. And though numbers are a little lower than last year, the voles at Edgeley Road seem fine too. As usual there is activity in the ditch at White Lion Meadow.

New sites logged this year include Ash Grange, Mile Bank and the Llangollen canal between Ellesmere and Whittington. In addition, it's been good to get a sighting at Yocking's Gate after a long absence of records.

On the down side, the voles seem to have gone from the Prees Branch canal; I can only assume mink predation's the problem there. A great shame as it was an excellent, strong colony. Similarly the ditch by Grocontinental has suffered disruption by building work this year and at least some of the habitat there has been deserted. I hope they return in 2015.

Pink Butterflies and Yockings Gate

Cinnabar moth resting and in flight

 Terrific habitat

Yockings Gate water vole

Thrilled to spot a water vole at Yockings Gate, the first for years. The vegetation's now grown back after severe dredging and the dumping of some chemical bins that looked very dodgy, and the banks and water seem healthy. I was also pleased to see this cinnabar moth as they're such vibrant, beautiful creatures. I can understand why some people think they've seen a "pink butterfly" as, when the moth's wings are open, it does look that shape.

Black Park Road and Yockings Gate

 The one-eyed vole of Edgeley Road, plus some more of her/his underwater droppings.

 The Staggs Brook as it passes Black Park Road on its way to Yockings Gate

 Typical feeding

 Burrow

 This shelf effect at the base of the bank has probably been created by water voles moving back and forth.

 Latrine

 Two feeding stations

Lots of water vole signs at Black Park Road and in the stretch leading down to the Railwayman's cottage (Debbie's voles). I presume they're also upstream, at Yockings Gate too, as the habitat there is excellent, but I can't get down to the banks to see. I have had sightings there in the past. So this spring looks good for the water voles of the Staggs Brook.

Water Voles back at Yockings Gate

Juvenile vole, from the field off Edgeley Road.

Guinea-pig sized female.

Yockings Gate baby frog.

Yockings gate baby toad.

I haven't had a sighting at Yockings Gate since 2007, so it was a pleasant surprise to wander up there last night and see certainly one water vole, possibly two, on either side of the bridge by the farm. You'd struggle to get a decent photo as the vegetation's now extremely lush, but that's great for the voles. As I arrived, two swans were sailing up the central channel, and I know a baby water vole makes a good snack for a swan. So the more places the voles have to hide, the better. Everything eats voles.

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This site's suffered in recent years from over-zealous dredging and from persons unknown dumping tubs of chemical waste into the water. I hope now the area's left to settle and the vole colony to really establish.

A Tale of Two Voles

Watched this baby vole creep forward and sniff the apple, only to miss out then to a big adult that swept in and scooped up the goodies (fourth photo down). But the younger vole was right to be cautious, and it did manage to salvage a bit of leftover after the other had gone.

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A quick scoot round Black Park Road yesterday revealed loads of feeding stations, and when I followed the brook up to Yockings Gate that area now looks very promising, but it's private land so I couldn't get down to the banks and poke about. I had several sightings there in 2007, but that section was dug out fairly radically and has taken till now to recover.