Eating Pollen for the Protein

 Yellowhammer

Below, burrows at Black Park road show a lot of activity.

 A hedgehog in our garden.

Below, Moss Fields (the back of Saddler's Walk) - feeding and burrows there.

Kestrel and skylark.

A Round-up of Some Sites

Water vole signs at the Railwayman's Cottage (near Homebase)

Below, Black Park Road and water vole signs there.

 And lastly, these signs below are at the ditch in Broughall. 

buzzard

Moss Field

 Two sparrowhawks that visited my garden today.

Moss Field is behind the Saddler's Walk estate, land that's soon to be developed, so we need to keep our eye on that. The ditch, which is L-shaped, maintains a steady population of water voles even when the water dries up, and happens some years. It's hard to get to once the vegetation has grown up, so it's good to get a survey in now. All the key field signs are in place that mean definite (and busy) water vole presence.

Dropping and some feeding at Moss Field, behind Saddler's Walk estate.

Below, the excellent habitat that is Railwayman's Cottage.

I've left it too late this year to do a good survey of Moss Field or the Railwayman's Cottage, but at the former there were a few signs I managed to see among the incredibly dense vegetation, showing that the voles are still there. Then I popped up to the cottage and was thrilled to meet the new owners who are entirely pro-vole and wanted to know what they could do to improve habitat. It's such a relief to know that colony is in safe hands. Next spring I'll get in sooner, before the coverage gets too thick to move around in.

Mossfields, Edward German Drive, and Twitter Friends

 You'll have to click to enlarge the photo - he wasn't stopping!

 Evidence of feeding at Edward German Drive

 Above: droppings and feeding at Edgeley Road.

Below: at Edward German Drive.

 My Twitter friend Pooks, who I met for the first time in real life and by accident!

You meet some really nice people when you're into wildlife, and the chap above is one of them. He'd been passing on water vole sightings to me via Twitter for a while. But I had no idea who he was when I approached him on the bridge by the main town car park and asked him if he'd spotted any interesting wildlife in the stream. 'There are supposed to be water voles here,' he said. I told him he was right, and pointed out a burrow. At which point he turned to me and said: 'Hang on, are you on Twitter?' I said, 'Yes, I'm @volewriter!' And then we knew who we were.

After a good chat he went off towards the wood yard to see if there was any vole activity there, and I went in the opposite direction, looking for field signs that would tell me how the colony was doing further along the brook. But fifteen minutes later he came hurrying up to me to show me some lovely photos he'd got of a water vole behind Tesco's.

Later in the day I went to check on Mossfields (the back of Saddler's Walk), and the voles there look to be doing really well.