Some Winter Activity

In my experience it's very unusual to find many water vole signs over the winter months, but here are some I came across on a walk this afternoon. Plenty of field vole presence, too.

Grey Squirrel Dancing

This is the tail-end of a mad ten minutes, where a grey squirrel went bananas up and down our compost heap and in and out of the mahonia. I've seen stoats dance in this way, but never squirrels. At this time of year, when there must be a need to conserve energy, I wonder why it dashed about so much? Unless it was to keep warm.

Bumper Year for Water Voles?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8346632.stm

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Possibly a slightly misleading headline, as more recorded sightings doesn't necessarily mean more water voles, but it's still encouraging. The linear nature of canals actually can work against water voles, as mink also like defined linear routes; some of the best habitats for water voles I've come across are ponds and ditches away from the bigger water courses.

Mustelid Action at Quoisley

Old otter spriant

Not sure what this is: it's definitely mustelid, but had no detectable smell so could feasibly be mink.
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Here's a busy place! After the comments on my last post, I went to take another look at Quoisley. I don't bother with this area much because I suspect there are now mink around that section of the canal and therefore no water voles: Malcolm Monie and I surveyed several ditches there last summer and drew a blank.
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However, the bridge looks as though it's a very ottery spot, judging by the amount of spraint on the kerb under there. That's probably good news for water voles, in that the theory is otters drive away mink. While otters do take the odd vole, they don't go through a whole colony and wipe it out the way a female mink does.

Never Pick Up a Wood Mouse by its Tail

Someone on the Wild About Britain forums told me this: that if you grab a wood mouse's tail, the skin sloughs off painfully, and then that portion of the tail dies and falls away. I found this dead wood mouse in a field and tried to move it so I could take a picture, and sure enough, away came the tail skin. It's a survival strategy, but a costly one. The correct way to hold a wood mouse is by its scruff, like the yellow-necked mouse and bank vole here: http://urbanextension.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/a-morning-with-mice-voles-shrews-moths-at-corfe-mullen-meadow-reserve/

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Short walk this afternoon down Edgeley Road revealed this water vole latrine. It seems very late in the year to be seeing latrines. Does that mean late-breeding females?

Otters at Grindley Brook

It's always worth checking under a bridge! The fairly busy canal area at Grindley Brook is obviously home to at least one otter. I found two spraints under two different bridges this lunchtime.

Another surprise guest

Greater spotted woodpeckers aren't by any means rare, but I've never had one in my garden before. I've been much more scrupulous this year about keeping the feeder filled, and I've started getting nuthatches, goldfinches, greenfinches and siskins which are also out of the ordinary for me. The woodmouse in the shed appreciates sunflower hearts too, I've found.