Water Vole

[riggy]

Hello
Saw my first water vole today whilst out on a dawn chorus walk. Grab a couple of very poor pics (it was about 0545, dull and rainy).

Whilst it doesn't suprise me that they are there due to the habitat any advice on seeing more of them. The ranger did show me a sight that has been used recently has a latrine.a pond that during the summer I regulary sit at due to dragonflies etc.

Cheers

Paul

[dampflippers]

I bet you'll be looking out for signs now every time you are near a pond or stream!
I'm going on a dawn chorus walk tomorrow...as long as I can make myself get up.

[vole-woman]

Try and find out their cycle - the voles I watch seem to stick to a timetable, but that varies from year to year and from colony to colony. Try four hours on from 5.45, and four hours on from that. Find somewhere to sit where you can be very still, and it helps if from time to time you drop a bit of apple (the older and riper the better) on the bank.

There's nothing I love better than watching water voles.

[riggy]

Originally Posted by vole-woman

Try and find out their cycle - the voles I watch seem to stick to a timetable, but that varies from year to year and from colony to colony. Try four hours on from 5.45, and four hours on from that. Find somewhere to sit where you can be very still, and it helps if from time to time you drop a bit of apple (the older and riper the better) on the bank.

There's nothing I love better than watching water voles.

Thanks for that Vole-woman, I will have to give it a go.
Would the latrin site be a good place to start. Do voles use the same latrin site or was it just a lucky find?

Dampflippers - Hope you manage to get up for youur dawn chorus walk - if the weather for you was like ours on Sunday then it would have been a good morning for it not raining like ours was.

Cheers

Paul

[dampflippers]

Our dawn chorus walk wasn't the best weather- misty drizzle which later cleared.
Heard and saw willow warbler, black cap, wren. Heard grasshopper warbler and possibly a garden warbler.
When I woke up and looked out of the kitchen window at 4am, there was a fox marking its territory!

Yes, they return to the latrine. Also look for the holes in the top of the bank and at water level. Cut stems of grass (usually slightly angled). You make spot a favourite clump.

[vole-woman]

The latrines are used as markers, and water voles often patrol up and down the range of their territory, so it's good to keep a watch near latrines. You can also look out for 'lawns' - what dampflippers is describing - where you can see patches of nibbling plus flattened grass where the vole has sat.

[riggy]

Sorry to restart an old thread but since seeing that first water vole I had seen nothing despite spending lots of time there (for birds and dragonflies as well).
Today I think that may have changed, stood on a bridge over a small stream taking some pics of a goldfinch on a tree, i became aware of something in the water. I took a couple of shots but they are not brill due to the light in the stream been darker than I had the camera set for.

I think it is a water vole
a)no obvious ears
b)shape of nose - blunt/rounded
c)i think i can see orange in mouth?teeth/tooth

I have heard "plops" before whilst on the bridge

The last one I saw I was with the ranger and a group of ten people or so.



Cheers

Paul

[dampflippers]

Yes yes yes!!
They are brilliant photos!

[dampflippers]

Yes yes yes!!
They are brilliant photos!

[riggy]

Originally Posted by dampflippers

Yes yes yes!!
They are brilliant photos!

Cheers

Thanks for the confirmation I was precent certain as where my wife and daughter, I have one peed off wife cause she didn't come with me and so didn't see it!

Cheers again

Paul