Whilst on site last Thursday, I was inspecting our drop -board sluices (used to let water off site), when I discovered what appeared to be water vole droppings on one of the boards.
Water voles are one of our target species and whilst we knew that they occasionally occur in the surrounding drains, we'd yet to record them (or their field signs) for sure, within the site's boundary.
I decided to investigate further and found numerous other clues as to their presence in the some of the ditches at the eastern end of the site. These included numerous droppings, plus evidence of grazing, pathways and a couple of potential entrance holes for burrows too.
Water vole field signs can be confused with those of other species, such as brown rat and field vole, however, these all looked pretty good to me.
Water vole numbers have declined greatly in the UK, to the point where it is now the rarest of our native mammals. This is due to both habitat loss and predation by escaped or released American mink.
The above image shows probable water vole droppings in a pathway along the water's edge.