Displacing the voles
Early start today. Two tasks for the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust to complete.
The first was my regular check of the river rafts for signs of small mammals. Today I recorded possible water vole presence – signs of trampled latrine on the raft and star shaped prints on the cartridge. I will be seeing Mike later who is the water vole expert to seek his opinion.
After finishing up, I made my way down the the canal at Eastington. There is some planned engineering work here, but before it can take place we need to undertake a water vole displacement under ecological supervision.
As water voles are protected species, work is not allowed to take place in an area where they known to be.
This involves checking for recent presence which Mike the ecologist performed. I could then take the brush cutter and cut the vegetation down to bare earth 15 meters either side of the spot where the engineering works will be happening.
This ensures that the water voles don’t set up nests there ... they will go further upstream where the vegetation gives them better protection.
Tough work today. I was working with Pete and we managed to clear the area in about six hours, including removing the cuttings into a habitat pile in nearby woodland.
