An Old Friend, and an Opportunity

The blackbird that lives by White Lion Meadow (Tesco)

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Fresh water vole droppings in the ditch by Grocontinental.

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Field vole droppings for comparison. Teeny weeny, smaller than uncooked grains of rice.
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Water vole foot prints in the ditch by Grocontinental.

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A feeding station further up - could be field- or water-vole.
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Rubbish finding its way from the yard of one of the industrial units
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What's this pipe been discharging into the water?
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Unsuitable habitat - too many trees shading the soil.

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Checked on the ditch near Grocontinental and found more prints at one end and fresh droppings at the other, so it looks as though these water voles are establishing themselves well again this year. Then I followed the ditch further, crossing Grocontinental's yard, to investigate an area I'd not seen before. The first stretch looks like potentially good habitat as a lot of predators will be discouraged by the noise from the industrial units on either side, and at the moment the water level here stays pretty regular (though it may not do if a lot of new units get built - Shropshire Planning Dept need to be aware of this re application ref 11/00806/FUL ).

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However, further up the water is contaminated with rubbish from one of the units, and then towards the culverted end there are too many trees to allow much vegetation to grow on the banks. The habitat could be improved by felling some of the trees to let more light in, and asking the owners of the industrial units to take more care in how they dispose of their rubbish.

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An opportunity to extend and strengthen a water vole colony here!

Hugh the Hedgehog Man

Me with a bit of field vole feeding

Hugh

Fun day out meeting Hugh Warwick, hedgehog-enthusiast and journalist http://www.urchin.info/ and author of the charming book A Prickly Affair: My Life with Hedgehogs. It had been raining all morning and, though I'd told him with supreme confidence we'd be tripping over field signs, when we got to the field we found that all the latrines and most of the feeding stations had been washed away. The place I normally sat to watch for voles was under water.
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So we set up camp on a different, drier stretch, and had barely unfolded the camp stool when a water vole appeared and fed very near us, followed by another ambling further up the bank. I think the rising water levels had actually worked in our favour because the burrows were probably unusable in the short term, forcing the voles up onto the surface.

Even where there isn't much water

Two feeding stations

Latrine

This overgrown ditch, near Saddler's Walk, has very little water in it, but a quick peek showed plenty of water vole activity. The habitat's like that near Black Park Road http://staggsbrook.blogspot.com/search/label/Black%20Park%20Road , another apparently choked-up area of brook much favoured by w-vs.

Colemere

Tortoiseshell

Red Admiral

Dragonfly (Southern Hawker?) at Colemere

Burrow at Edward German Drive

Feeding at White Lion Meadow

Droppings at White Lion Meadow. Despite the light green colour, these were definitely water vole because of the size.

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Survey today at Colemere, near Ellesemere. Our group didn't find any water vole evidence, but we did see a toad, a field vole and a lot of dragonflies, butterflies and damselflies. Not sure yet how the other groups got on.

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On the way home I checked White Lion Meadow car park and found feeding and droppings, despite the downpours and fluctuating water levels of late. A stroll up Edward German Drive revealed several burrows (for scale, think of a Pringles tube) and some feeding.

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Update regarding the other survey groups' results, from Malcolm Monie's report: Some signs were found in and near the Roden itself in the Wolverley area, but at a low density. Upstream, the brook flowing out of Colemere was examined and despite good habitat, no water vole signs were to be found. A survey 3km farther downstream revealed just one site where a couple of burrows and possible water vole feeding signs were found, as distinct from field voles which were present on the same stretch.

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We think mink presence plus only intermittently suitable habitat are the key issues.

A Vole of my Own

I've had to lighten the photo massively as everything was getting dark, but this was the second vole of the evening. The storm we had the other night has swept a lot of the watercress away, and the level of the brook is high. This makes spotting voles a lot easier than it's been for weeks.

After the flood...

...it's always reassuring to see a vole. They can get swept away and drowned when water levels rise very quickly. Aside from rats, that's their main problem at White Lion Meadow.
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Chiara, if you're reading this, hello! And huge thanks.

This Weather!

Managing to get sightings, despite the squally weather. Light rain never hurt a water vole, but heavy downpours can cause flash flooding which can fill burrows and drown young, while adults are swept away by very strong currents. I'm pleased to say, though, there've been no flash floods here this summer.

Vole's Eye View

The water level's very low at the moment, so even the minnows are making quite dramatic ripples. That, coupled with blackbirds rooting in the long grass, have me grabbing for my camera like a fool every few minutes. But here's tonight's vole, swimming and feeding.

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The top photo shows the brook from under the bridge: a vole's eye view. It really is a beautiful little stretch of water.

Two voles tonight, at Yockings Gate. Good to see after the floods!

Some days

...you stand for half an hour and see nothing, as I did this morning. That's the way of wildlife watching. But there were fresh footprints, and the banks are greening up nicely which will provide protection for the babies when they venture out.

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This burrow is on the top surface of the bank; water voles like to have entrances on several levels for maximum escape opportunities, which is why some openings are under water. The one here is there in case of massive flooding, so the vole can get right away if necessary.

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I'm pleased to say the trolleys pictured below are now finally gone, and encouragingly I've had a letter from the new manager at Whitchurch Tesco inviting me in to talk to him about the situation. I'll report back on this when I know more.

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Post script: In retrospect, I think this burrow belongs to a rat as it has a spoil heap at its entrance. Water voles' burrows are tidier than that! They're also more likely to be near the water's edge - though what I said above about voles having entrances on several levels is true as well. Not easy telling the two sorts of burrow apart.

So when are they coming out?

Lots more prints, especially by the bridge. Are the voles coming out just at night? because there's obviously plenty of activity going on.

The water level's low at the moment.