Prees Branch Canal 2010

Feeding station at the Prees Branch Canal

The plastic mesh baskets holding sodden oasis that keeps the clay moist and ready to take paw prints

Tracking cartridges covered in cling film and soaking in water to keep them fresh
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I should have renewed the tracking pads on the mink rafts before, but I finally made it down to the Prees Branch Canal nature reserve and refreshed the inserts with new smooth clay. On one raft was water vole feeding, and on the other, water vole droppings, and there was feeding all the way between. It looks as though that colony's off to a sound start.

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All the photographs of voles are taken at White Lion Meadow car park.

Handy

I've got a friend checking the rafts at Prees Branch Canal now, so I don't have to go so often. Nevertheless it's a pleasure to pop down there and see how the colony's doing.

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Today I found more otter spraint under the bridge where I found some last time; I know it looks a bit minky, but the sniff test confirmed it was definitely otter. Good news for the water voles as the presence of an otter ought to keep mink at bay.

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And there was water vole feeding on both sides of the bridge, the whole length of the canal from Waterloo to the marina. Finally, on the raft near the marina, there was a handy pile of water vole droppings. If only all voles could be as cooperative.

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Finally, some wonderful photos from another wildlife blog: http://terrywhittakerphoto.blogspot.com/2009/07/volare.html

The "Whitchurch Plate"

Using the Isle of Wight 'vole spoon' as an inspiration (http://staggsbrook.blogspot.com/2009/01/vole-spoons.html ) Lorcan from the Whitchurch Water Vole group's come up with the Whitchurch Plate, an overnight tracking device designed to gather evidence of water vole presence quickly. He's used a metal collar with swivelling legs at one side that can be sunk into the bank either vertically or horizontally. The plate - an ordinary dinner plate - is spread with soft clay in the same way as a mink raft, then balanced on top of the metal frame. Then you add a few bits of chopped apple and leave for 12-24 hours (maybe 48 maximum). The whole contraption's attached to a bit of string so you can pull it out easily, doing minimum damage to the bank side.

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To improve the model further, we need to attach the plate securely to the collar - use a plastic plate with holes drilled in the sides and fastened with wire, maybe. We also could put a thin layer of soaked oasis under the clay to keep it moist, as the mix I spread on the test plate dried out slightly and therefore we only got muddy footprints from the voles rather than indented ones.

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Still, essentially it works, and is a LOT less cumbersome than a mink raft!

Woodpeckers and Kingfishers

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Took a walk down the Prees Branch canal to collect the clay inserts from the rafts so I can re-set them for the Spring.

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Had a lovely long glimpse of a kingfisher flashing orange/blue for several hundred yards along the bank, and then further down watched a pair of greater spotted woodpeckers for about quarter of an hour.

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Vole-wise, there was some feeding by the marina raft (watercress and a nibbled-open ramshorn snail shell), and a latrine at what I like to call 'vole island' which is a hundred yards or so down from the Waterloo end of the canal. Good to see these signs when usually ther's so little evidence at this time of year.

A Voling Kit

I thought I'd put together a list of kit I've found useful over the last three years for doing surveying work and checking mink rafts. Apologies if some of these seem self-evident, but there didn't seem any point in making an equipment list unless it was fairly comprehensive. So here are some of the items I take with me when I go voling:
* wellies/waders

* camera

* gloves to protect from scratches and germs (can be latex gloves if gardening ones make you too clumsy)

* gadget for scale - coin attached to a length of fishing twine wound round a cork

* pole/stick/grabber - useful for helping you balance as you scramble up and down banks, or test the depth of mud before you step into water

* little bag or pot for putting interesting samples in, eg pieces of feeding

* bottle of clean water for smoothing out the clay tracking compartment on the mink raft

* ruler for smoothing out clay, plus to help with scale in photographs

* ID book to help with tracks and scat etc - my favourite's Rob Strachan's Mammal Detective

You might also take along a phone, spare camera battery, sterile hand wipes or alcohol-based hand cleanser, binoculars/scope (though the zoom on a camera works quite well for this purpose), handheld GPS tracker for grid references, a sketch map and pencil on a clipboard (essential for proper survey recording).

If anyone has any other suggestions, do add them.

I include a recent photo from White Lion Meadow of feeding. I've spotted a suspicious-looking hole with spoil outside it; water voles dig inwards and don't leave spoil heaps outside their burrows, so I'm concerned this may be a rat.

Kingfishers

Just about caught this kingfisher as he flashed past.

Went to check the rafts and found feeding all along the Prees Branch Canal, plus a lot of droppings on the raft at the Whixall Marina end. I was struck by the variable size of the droppings - it looks as though a whole family of water voles, from the huge to the tiny, has been using this same place as a toilet.

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On the way back I stopped at the bridge by Greenfield Farm on Ossage Lane and saw two kingfishers and what might have been a water vole. Worryingly, I read in the local paper that NSDC have given planning permission near here to some people who, a few years back, were fined £3,000 by the EA for polluting a water course with dog excrement.

http://www.nohuntkennel.co.uk/5_march_08.htm

Obviously this is a development which will need monitoring, as it could prove a real threat to the wildlife in the brook.

Voles where I've not seen them before

The bridge over the ditch just before Dobson's (canal) Bridge

Excellent habitat due to good fencing.

Just-about-visible vole.

A nice feeding station, with some droppings towards the bottom edge.

Tell-tale cuts.

If you enlarge the photo above by clicking, you should see several stalks cut off at an angle.

This (above) is what happens if you don't check your rafts regularly enough. I usually go down every 7-14 days - the more often you can look, the better - but with being on holiday I missed a week. The result's a confusion of prints that aren't really readable, though I think I can see some water vole and some brown rat in there.

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Plenty of water vole feeding going on all along the top section; less lower down, towards the marina, but no sign at all of any mink.

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Then, on the way back home I stopped by the stream just before Dobson's Bridge, and saw a vole pretty much straight away. The farmer who owns the field by this brook has helpfully set his fence well back so there's a good margin of unpoached, untouched bank, and it looks to me like a place that's teeming with wildlife.

Jolly Moth

Stopped by the Prees Branch canal to check the mink rafts, and found a water vole had been using it as a feeding station (those two manky old lengths of reed laid at an angle on the roof). There was also a footprint inside, which looked like water vole - very splayed out.
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All along the canal I found odd bits of feeding, though not the huge feed stations there were in spring. There was quite a lot round this miniature island, third photo down.

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Plenty of butterflies like this speckled wood, and this gorgeous large emerald moth (top picture).

Whixall and the Prees Branch Canal

Young vole sitting just about where NSDC want to install a drainage pipe!

Male banded demoiselle, Pres Branch canal

White legged damselflies, Prees Branch Canal

Female large skipper

Prints on the raft at the marina end of the canal

A little feeding.

Not as much feeding - at at least, not as much visible feeding - at the Prees Branch canal, and also some worrying prints on the raft near the marina. Obviously this needs investigating, so I'm seeking an ID from a friend. Then again, the lady who lives in the cottage at the other end said she saw two water voles this week in the vegetation by her house.

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Lots of insects by the canal; Whixall's a wonderful area for wildlife.
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Came back to Whitchurch and spotted this young water vole by the railway bridge.
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Update: my WAB friend Mark thinks the prints aren't mink because there's too small a gap between toe pads, and "palm" pad, toe pad spread is too small, and there are no claw marks. It might be a cat, which isn't ideal for w-vs, but it's nothing like as disastrous as mink.

Dead Water Vole

Went to check the rafts at Prees Branch Canal again, and almost immediately found a dead water vole on the path. It didn't seem marked in any way, which to me suggested a cat had killed it, and when I mentioned it to the lady who lives in the end cottage, she said she'd seen one hanging about. So many things will take a water vole - herons, swans, rats, all mustelids (weasels, stoats, mink, polecats, otters, pine martens), many birds of prey, pike and foxes - so it's depressing to have to add cats into the mix as well. At least when an owl takes a vole, it's to feed itself. I'd ask all cat owners to fit their pets' collars with a bell, and to keep them in between dusk and dawn (cats are safer kept in at night anyway, as this is the time of day a lot get run over).

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Anyway, I was able to get close-up photos of the hind feet, tail and teeth, and to measure it; this water vole was 11cm from nose to rump. The orange teeth are a characteristic of adult water voles, and can be seen on my earlier post about the skull. Water voles' teeth are used for digging, so they do have to be very large.

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Still quite a lot of feeding going on down the canal length, including again some nibbled snails (see fourth photo down), and when I checked the lower raft, there were fresh water vole droppings on the wood section and on the clay.

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I include the top picture to show good landowner practice: this farmer has allowed a protected margin of vegetation along the side of the canal, and built a cattle drinker so his bullocks can come down to the water without trampling the banks into a muddy mess. I've done survey work round this farm ( http://staggsbrook.blogspot.com/2007/06/whixall-hall-farm.html ) and the owner is very keen on nature. Three cheers for people like this!