Briefly, between showers

A water vole-sized burrow at Waylands Road, with grazed watercress in front

Water vole poo - the coin's a 5p piece

Grazed watercress and field vole droppings

Baby blackbird

I tried to make use of this fine evening by staking out the ditch near Lidl, but all I saw was field voles. They move so much faster than water voles - they dart nervously about, whereas unalarmed water voles amble, and sit for long period eating.

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A quick poke round the back of Waylands Road, though, revealed water vole latrines and field vole droppings. Our surveys have shown many times that the two can live side by side.

Back on the case

Had a quick check of the main sites this morning, but a showery day coming after a prolonged period of heavy rain isn't the best time to go looking for voles or field signs. White Lion Meadow, like everywhere else, is getting pretty overgrown and it's hard to see much at all, but there are still areas of what look like vole-flattened grass along the banks (third photo down), and a quick check by the pipe revealed feeding.

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The most interesting news is some sightings in this unpromising ditch by Lidl (last picture). The vegetation's been heavily grazed, and when I went to look last night I saw a small mammal disappearing into the undergrowth, though I couldn't tell whether it was a baby water vole or a field vole. Lots of twitching grass, though: there's clearly busy activity of some sort down there.