After the flood

It's now been two weeks since the flood waters have receded and what were once swollen banks and flooded fields:

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Are now large puddles and the normal exposed high banks:

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The floods can be mixed for the local wildlife.  Very young otters (under a month) can drown as they would still be in a holt and unable to swim.
But for older otters it may present more of an opportunity, such as this drowned rabbit, which has probably been swept downstream and provided a change from the usual diet of fish:
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High water and flash floods can be disastrous for water voles as their burrows can become flooded and they too can be drowned.
However as the Ock floods most years, the water voles need a surveil strategy, so perhaps they move further away from the river in winter, as these snail shells several metres from the river have been gnawed by a small rodent (possibly a water vole):
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Prolonged flooding can also have a disastrous effect on the animals which predate such small mammals like owls and kestrels.
But if the flooding is only for a short period then it may have the opposite effect as the voles and mice are displaced it may offer extra hunting opportunities, such as for this kestrel in a tree overlooking the floodplain:
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Winter Floods 2014

The heavy rain that fell over Christmas and at the start of the new year once again resulted in the river and it's tributaries bursting their banks flooding the Ock Meadow flood plain - as seen on Saturday 4th January.

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By Friday 10th January the river level had dropped, but the lower Ock was still very high:

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Although the weir where the upper and lower Ocks rejoin was completely submerged.
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And the often photographed and benchmark for river levels was half way down the T of Bristol when this photograph was taken on Friday morning.
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Whilst the Ock has been high this year, it has not been as problematic as the Thames. Whilst     Oxford has been badly hit (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-25638919) most of the Abingdon flooding has been consigned to the fields that make up the floodplain.
Such as Barton Fields:
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And the nearby fields:

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