A Mixed Picture

 Edward German Drive vole

 White-faced darter and a female Stonechat,on Whixall Moss

 Wood Yard vole

  Droppings and a vole at Edgeley Road

Below: two more Edward German Drive voles, from different days.

I'm struggling to see voles in the usual places this year. The field signs are there, but actual sightings are proving tricky. There's been some sort of scum on the water this week right the way along the Staggs Brook, plus the growth of sewage fungus, so I'm hoping that's not impacted on the health of the wildlife. (Sewage fungus isn't caused by sewage, it just gets its name because it looks unpleasant.) Perhaps rain will help. On the plus side, there's more vole activity than I've ever seen on Edward German Drive.

Water vole populations do have a natural 'boom and bust' cycle, peaking and crashing every four years, so maybe this is just a normal fluctuation. I hope so.

First Vole of 2017!

Great to see this colony up and running again, though I note that the water by Tesco's is contaminated by diesel again. Last time this happened it came from the lorry park at Grocontinental. I don't know where this spill originates, but I've reported it to the Environment Agency.

Pollution in the Brook

This disgusting-looking stuff is sewage fungus, and grows when nutrients contaminate the water. In this case, judging by the state of fungal growth, the pollution's chronic; in other words it's been going on for months.

This part of the brook - actually a tributary into the main water course - doesn't have a lot in the way of an "upstream", so one of the places the Environment Agency are looking at is the new anaerobic digestion plant owned by Grocontinental which is in the next field. Its possible that the maize stored on that site has been allowed to leak nutrients into the ground and they've ended up in the water course, causing the problem.

Worryingly, the brook runs right through town and into Greenfields Nature Reserve at Chemistry, with water vole colonies all along the length. A lot of people will be watching for the outcome of this.