As all the water vole sightings have been in one area (in blue on the map), I'm keen to know if the population is larger or if there are other colonies in the area ). Although it does look good water vole habitat and there may be some burrows, so far there have been no sightings or obvious field signs (in red).
View River Ock #3 in a larger map
I may come back to this area, but there's other places I hope to explore this weekend and next week - probably the ditches near Tescos.
Yes, it's important to look at why water vole presence stops at a certain point, and then to ask whether there's anything that can be done about it.
ReplyDeleteThis is our objective for the summer: to move down southwards into the centre of Shropshire and look at where the boundaries appear to be.
I assumed the water voles would live between two weirs, however they stop half way.
ReplyDeleteThis could be because the habitat changes - there are more overhanging trees and there are steep banks without much growth, maybe this forms a natural barrier and if the population remains constant, they have no need to seek out new territory.
- Just a guess.