Even so, they can be hard to see lurking at the waters edge:
.
.
At other times, they are more obvious, just sat on the rivers edge eating:.
Or swimming across the river:
.
Before darting back into their borrows:
.
Sunday, 1 April 2012
Weekend water voles
This time of year, with the mild longer evenings, the lack of vegetation and the breeding season just starting is probably the best time to see water voles.
Even so, they can be hard to see lurking at the waters edge:
.
.
.
.
Or swimming across the river:
.
.
Before darting back into their borrows:
.
.
Even so, they can be hard to see lurking at the waters edge:
.
.
Or swimming across the river:
.
Before darting back into their borrows:
.
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Lovely photos, Richard.
ReplyDeleteHi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThere was a good programme about water voles on radio 4 the other day:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dhrms
thought you (or others) might find it interesting. Not sure how long it's available on iplayer.
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
DeleteThank you very much for the link and yes, the programme is still there. It was fascinating to listen to and it made me appreciate that I live in a water vole hotspot - with colonies near where I work and live.
I'll mention it in a future blog post
Richard
Great pics mate, I'm assuming the little buggers are difficult to photograph, so kudos ...
ReplyDeleteHI Crash,
DeleteThanks - It depends, sometimes they can be difficult and run off at the sound of shutter, sometimes they don't mind at all.
The main problem is they are becoming quite rare, once common they have suffered from habitat loss and fragmentation as well as predation from non native american mink.
So it's always a pleasure to see one and always better to get a decent photo of one.
There is some evidence that otters are displacing mink which is encouraging, but I filmed a mink in Wiltshire recently in an area very heavily used by otters so I'm not sure....
ReplyDeleteHi Stephen,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your comment and your observation.
I think the relationship between otters, mink and water voles is a complex one and possibly worthy of academic study.
On the Ock itself, there have been breeding otters and given the nature of the river (steep banks), it has lead to my hypothesis that an otter with cubs would not tolerate an otter in such a confined habitat. This is backed up by circumstantial evidence that mink were once common, but are now seldom seen and the water vole population is now appears to be booming (I saw 11 water voles in half an hour last night).
Having said that, a mink was seen near the Ock, but not in it, recently - maybe displaced by the otters?
I have seen mink along the Thames in Abingdon and have stood next to a fresh mink scat watching a water vole, whilst the theory would have said these water voles would have been wiped out by the mink.
I have been considering writing a post about this subject, but I have been suffering from writers block recently.