Grocontinental

Shy vole

 Above: two feeding stations and a piece of vole-cut stalk.

 Latrine sites

Looks like a burrow but it's actually just a trackway through the grass into the water.

It was great to be invited onto Grocontinental's site for a water vole survey, given that normal public access has been closed and the footpath fenced off. I'm pleased to say we found vole signs, even after all the building and landscaping work that's been going on, and the company say they want to improve water vole habitat and make a feature of the ditch for their employees to enjoy. That's a terrific aim, and encouraging to hear.

We've also been assured we can go back and survey the site at regular intervals in the future.

The Waiting Game

It's always an anxious time, waiting for the water voles to reappear. Not many signs at present, except a few burrows, though there's lots of field vole activity. Grocontinental have removed some of the hedges next to the ditch in their field which might be a help in encouraging the growth of vegetation along the banks, but I hope they've done the most disruptive work now and the voles are left alone to breed now.

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.

Nesting

 Edgeley Road nesting vole

 Droppings from the ditch by Grocontinental

 Hedgehog poo 

Green Veined White

Just spent an hour watching a female water vole taking nesting materials to her nest. Water voles build football-sized woven grass nests usually in underground chambers, though they have been occasionally found above ground in clumps of vegetation, too. http://www.foxglovecovert.org.uk/images/blog/IMG_3754a.jpg

Goodbye to 2013

 Snug

 The ditch by Grocontinental as it looks this month

 Trackway leading through the reeds to the water

Various water vole footprints: at Grocontinental, in the field off Edgeley Road (see extreme bottom right of photo) and some from last Feb to show the clear starry shape of the paws.

There's very little doing vole-wise this month - I don't expect to see any real activity till February or March - but there's clearly still water vole presence in the two fields off Edgeley Road. W-vole paw prints are very similar to rat so I would be cautious about claiming any of these photos were definitive proof. However, I have found them in areas where there were lots of voles in the summer and autumn, and they do look pretty star-shaped to me.

Round-up

Photos above showing the lovely rounded shape of a vole.

Feeding station and droppings at Mossfields.

Vole which had been damaged, probably by fighting. It looked healthy otherwise and was eating well and swimming about, but I haven't seen it for a fortnight. It's either died or found another territory.

Had a look at a few sites now we're coming towards the end of the season. Obviously the field off Edgeley Road's been the hottest spot for water voles in Whitchurch, but it looks as if White Lion Meadow's also done OK as the stone under the bridge has had a latrine on it all summer. I looked further up Edward German Drive but couldn't see anything; then again, the vegetation's too thick to get right down the bank so I may have missed some signs.

Mossfields (the back of Saddler's Walk), amazingly, hasn't dried out despite the hot weather, and the voles there seem to be doing well if the amount of feeding is anything to go by.

Greenfields Nature reserve is a mystery. Again, the vegetation there is so thick I can't get down to the water to see what's going on. Crossing my fingers that colony's held up this year, and that the few voles left at the Prees Branch Canal manage to re-establish themselves next summer.

The Grocontinental voles look to have recovered well; I had a sighting there yesterday.

I need still to check on Black Park Road and the Railway Bridge by Homebase, and will do within the next week or so.

Good News for the Grocontinental Voles

 Latrine in the ditch near Grocontinental. This tells us there's a breeding female there.

 Edgeley Road juvenile and baby

Grocontinental vole

I know many of you have been waiting for an update on this particular colony: well, I’m pleased to tell you that after discussions, the outcome has been pretty positive. In the longer term, habitat will be improved and there is potential for further enhancement of the site, under the guidance of a team including a professional ecologist who understands about the importance of timings to works, and about best environmental practice generally.  

I'm delighted to add that I've had two sightings there recently, and we look forward to water voles thriving in this stretch of the brook.