Tuesday 18 May 2010

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Vole peeps out...

...of this burrow

Grazing in the ditch near Grocontinental.

Almost trod on a water vole tonight: I was just bending down to photograph a burrow from the Edgeley Road end of the ditch near Grocontinental when the occupant poked its head out. The photo's poor but I post it because it was such a magical moment.
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Further up the ditch I had another sighting, but also this skull left on top of a fence post which I think is water vole, even though the teeth aren't as orange as usual. My guess is the vole was taken by a bird of prey.
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I watched the new vole burrow and throw out spoil, which was a surprise as I understood spoil heaps were more associated with rat digging. A short walk to end the evening showed latrines and burrows at the railway bridge by Homebase.
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Best news of the day: we have great crested newts in our pond!

2 comments:

Dave said...

Enjoy the newts!

Kate said...

The hunt is on to get a photo. I'll have to invest in a decent torch, I think!