Tails

I was interested yesterday to witness an adult water vole using its tail to hang over the edge of a bank. Its haunches were on the grass but its front half was over the water, only its tail hooked round a twig held it firm. I've not seen that before.

Meanwhile on Prees Heath

 Baby water voles, like puppies, have huge paws.

Edgeley Road voles and latrines. below, images from a walk on Prees Heath

 Tiger Moth, possibly Ruby.

 Small heath and Silver Studded Blue butterflies

 Yellow Shell moth

 Amazing camouflage by this shield bug

 Four-spotted Chaser

Yellowhammers - we saw two and heard others singing. Also heard skylarks.

A Sad Goodbye - a Colony Wiped Out by Mink

The wildlife photographer Richard Steel http://wildlifephotographic.blogspot.co.uk/ has been following a colony of water voles at Acton, Cheshire, and taking the most wonderful photographs like the ones above. But he contacted me a few days ago to say that all the water voles are now gone. He was worried at the end of last year about the presence of mink, and sure enough, this year the colony had been wiped out. He'd found mink scat, and seen a dead moorhen in the water. Tellingly, there were no ducklings on that stretch of canal either. Acton Marina had been home to a strong and busy population of animals, but now there's nothing left at all.

It is so important that we trap and kill mink when we know they're about. To do nothing is to walk away whistling from a man-made ecological disaster, and to sign the water voles' death warrant. All we can do from this incident is learn a lesson.

You can see more of Richard's heartbreakingly beautiful photographs here: http://wildlifephotographic.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=vole

Canal Edging - what's Good and Bad for Voles

 Male beautiful demoiselle

Back at The Narrowboat pub today to take another look at those canal banks. The sections with steel shuttering/palings up against the soil are useless for water voles because you can't make burrows in metal. But I'm pleased to say there are stretches of the canal where, although the banks have been reinforced, it's with a waterproof fabric and wood, around which the voles can work. The photos show how they've swum underneath the wooden railing and made themselves little shelters between the wood and grass.

Another way of helping water voles to at least travel along sections of shuttered or concrete canal in safety is to install coir rolls along the bank sides, as the wildlife trust have done here:  http://www.wandletrust.org/?p=838

Beyond Ellesmere

 Burrows along the tow path

 Droppings and trackways

 A feeding station

 Near Maestermyn Marine 

The one-eyed vole and her baby, at Edgeley Road

After a report from a friend on Twitter - hooray for social media and wildlife networking - I took a trip out along the Ellesemere-Whittington road and checked out the Llangollen Canal there. On each side of the bridge were lots of burrows, and unusually they were on the tow path bank, right where people were walking. I didn't have time to sit and watch for actual voles, but I wonder how habituated to human presence this colony is.

Rats and Voles - Essentially, it's Down to Bluntness

I hope these comparison shots are helpful for looking at the differences between rats and water voles. A similar size, but the muzzle of a rat is much pointier, and the ears more prominent. At the other end of the animal, the tail of a rat is pink and scaly where a water vole's is brown and furred.

Baby Water Voles at Play

Pleased with this video footage of what are almost certainly siblings messing about and play-fighting. The shot of the juvenile part-submerged shows how the water-repellent fur traps a layer of air, turning the vole silvery while it's below the surface. But a good shake when the animal climbs out and the coat is pretty much dry again. Grooming plays a big part in keeping fur waterproof.