Monday 3 May 2010

Signs of life on Sandford Brook?

Back in January I considered if water voles were living in Sandford Brook, a stream flowing to the west of the ock meadow and is a tributary of the ock.
It does seem good habitat for water voles - steep banks for burrows and plenty of sources of food:
And there do seem to be new burrows:
And maybe signs of feeding as well:
The water vole map has been updated with a yellow pin (for possible water vole activity) and I will be returning there to see if I can get a sighting before the undergrowth gets too high:
It has also been updated with another sighting on the ock (blue pin for new sighting), towards the bottom of the map:



View Water voles 2010 in a larger map

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2 comments:

  1. Rachel5 May 2010 at 11:50

    What a weird day: I've come across two references to water voles without even looking!

    Don't know if you ever read The Times (I get it for the Su Doku). There was a brief bit about water voles today under the Nature News column.

    Also, I had an interesting newsletter from PTES (People's Trust for Endangered Species) regarding water voles and the need to record sightings. Apparently they are trying to set up a national database. The website is www.ptes.org

    You're probably aware of this already but if not, I thought you or other visitors to your blog might find it interesting.

    Good luck with your sightings. Hopefully some more of your excellent pictures to follow soon!

    Rachel

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  2. Richard6 May 2010 at 12:15

    Hi Rachel,

    Thanks for pointing me towards the PTES web site, I now see they're doing an otter survey - so I'll pass on what I've found out round here
    It will be be interesting to see what a national water vole survey reveals. I wonder how many other water vole hotspots there are.

    Richard

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