Spot

Little starry feet

I've posted before about the characteristic star-shaped footprints water voles often leave in soft mud. The second photo down shows the splayed toe formation of the hind foot very clearly (as modelled by "Spot").

Ditch

Finally managed to get a photo of one of the voles that live in the ditch near Grocontinental. These are the ones who use a nasty old bit of polystyrene (top photo) as a latrine!

Whitchurch Country Park and Greenfields Nature Reserve

Wildlife volunteers planted these apples for the water voles.

Click to enlarge and see all the cut-off stalks - classic water vole.

The steps through the woods which volunteers installed earlier this year.

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My friend at White Lion Meadow.

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I was astonished and dismayed to hear a local councillor refer to Whitchurch Country Park this week as "a complete disgrace". Volunteers have been working all year on the nature reserve, installing steps and handrails, a cattle drinker, a pond, information boards and seating, amongst other improvements. I wrote earlier this year about the amazing diversity of wildlife to be found around this area of the Staggsbrook, and the richness that leaving a small wild area creates. Today, for instance, the place was full of butterflies, even though we're into autumn, and there's still water vole feeding to be seen. I can't tell you how beautiful the place is, and how many people enjoy visiting it.

My little friend again

Oh, and a baby newt from Brown Moss yesterday.

Nippy

And now in motion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhbEqfEFxQw

Juvenile

Tell-take cuts show water voles have been feeding here.

A young vole with a little white patch on its head. If it survives the winter, this individual should be easy to recognize next spring.