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| 1 | 2 |  » Stats |
Members: 50,155
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17-02-2009, 08:36 AM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Romford, Essex
Posts: 5,356
| | | crossness water voles go on long break
I imagine many of the crossness regulars already know this but just in case BBC NEWS | England | London | Water voles rescued from sewage
They should be happy at wildwood  |
17-02-2009, 08:52 AM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Scotland/Spain
Posts: 5,611
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
That's a nice story with a happy ending and good to see a council caring for it's "residents"
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17-02-2009, 09:26 AM
|  | Dame Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: North Kent
Posts: 9,725
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
It's amazing what lives at Crossness, so close to London and next to the treatment centre. When we went there with Pressld2 (Dave) we were very impressed.
I'm glad that these protected species are quite rightly being given top priority.
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17-02-2009, 02:08 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Shropshire
Posts: 2,599
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
Thanks for posting this! Wildwood does a lot for water voles, I believe. |
17-02-2009, 02:21 PM
|  | Moderator | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Belvedere, Kent
Posts: 10,029
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
You beat me to it Neil!
I'm taking a long and late lunch break tomorrow and will be doing the 2 o'clock trap rounds with Karen, the Crossness warden, hoping to get some pictures. I've been warned not to get my hopes up as the voles are generally more active at dawn and dusk so we may just find empty traps. Unfortunately the 6am and 10pm rounds, which will probably be much more productive, will be in darkness and I don't want to risk using flash as the animals are likely to be a little stressed by their capture to start with.
So fingers crossed there may be some pics tomorrow evening.
Dave P.
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17-02-2009, 02:25 PM
| | Dame Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: North Kent
Posts: 9,725
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
Quote:
Originally Posted by pressld2  You beat me to it Neil!
I'm taking a long and late lunch break tomorrow and will be doing the 2 o'clock trap rounds with Karen, the Crossness warden, hoping to get some pictures. I've been warned not to get my hopes up as the voles are generally more active at dawn and dusk so we may just find empty traps. Unfortunately the 6am and 10pm rounds, which will probably be much more productive, will be in darkness and I don't want to risk using flash as the animals are likely to be a little stressed by their capture to start with.
So fingers crossed there may be some pics tomorrow evening.
Dave P. | You lucky ..... 
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17-02-2009, 05:07 PM
|  | Member of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Lightmoor
Posts: 258
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
Wow they are even planting special reed beds for them.
Shows you can own a sewage treatment plant and be caring about wildlife 
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17-02-2009, 08:03 PM
| | Moderator | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Belvedere, Kent
Posts: 10,029
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
They had two voles on the 10pm round last night and another two at 6am this morning but nothing at 2pm. Oh well, might be different tomorrow.
The Beeb seem to be taking quite an interest as BBC London News will be filming on the 6am round tomorrow and following the team down to Wildwood, so if you're in the south-east look out for some footage on the telly.
Dave P.
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18-02-2009, 06:13 AM
| | Dame Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: North Kent
Posts: 9,725
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
Let us know how you get on with the WV's today Dave.
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18-02-2009, 06:02 PM
| | Moderator | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Belvedere, Kent
Posts: 10,029
| | | Re: crossness water voles go on long break
Well, as expected, there were no voles in the traps on the 2pm round today. There were four caught last night and another five this morning so at least the BBC crew had something to film. That's 13 caught so far in just two days and they haven't even started on one of the lagoons yet.
There are three different designs of trap in use...   
...and I was really surprised at the numbers. I imagined maybe half a dozen to a dozen but there are ninety traps already deployed and a further forty going out tomorrow in the lagoon that they haven't yet started on. (This lagoon is quite deep so they've had to put pontoons on it first.) There are forty in this lagoon... 
Here's Claire and Adam checking for signs in the un-trapped lagoon... 
...and checking for voles in the trapped lagoon...  
Claire preparing grated carrot to rebait the traps for tonight... 
A few facts and figures: It costs £2.25 per vole per day to house them at Wildwood and they are expected to be there for two years. The original estimate was that they would trap around 30 voles and Wildwood will breed these up to a population of around sixty. So that's 60 voles at £2.25 equals £130 per day. For two years that's £98,550!  And that's assuming the project doesn't over-run. Having caught so many to start with they are now thinking that they may get a total of 50 or 60 voles by the time they finish trapping, which will push the costs higher still. I was going to say "Glad I don't have to pay for it" but as a Thames Water customer I probably do!
Anyway, I'm going back for the 6am trap round on Friday morning so hope to have some vole pictures to post then.
Dave P.
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