the problem with a macro lens...
Printed From: Reptiles and Amphibians of the UK
Category: General
Forum Name: Associated Fauna and Flora
Forum Description: A forum for plants, invertebrates and other animals associated with herpetofauna
URL: http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4818
Printed Date: 16 Apr 2024 at 5:24am
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Topic: the problem with a macro lens...
Posted By: will
Subject: the problem with a macro lens...
Date Posted: 22 Aug 2014 at 5:23pm
...is that you can't get in close when a water vole is performing in front of you...   |
Replies:
Posted By: Suzy
Date Posted: 22 Aug 2014 at 8:25pm
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Still nice photos Will. I was very surprised to see one on top of a hill in the Quantocks, but in an area of flush and rushes. I had always thought they were in rivers, streams etc. When sea trout fishing as a kid, on one of Arthur Ransome's favourite streams in the Lake District, we used to watch them when they came out on the opposite bank. I hadn't seen one in the intervening years. I let the local AONB know the grid ref etc. ------------- Suz |
Posted By: will
Date Posted: 22 Aug 2014 at 8:39pm
| thanks Suz. I knew of a colony that was restricted to a reed-fringed pond on a golf course (which also had GCN) in the Romford area back in the 1990's. It was isolated from rivers etc with only a ditch around fifty metres away which had probably saved them from the dreaded mink - goodness knows how they found it, but they were thriving til the golf course filled the pond in... |
Posted By: Suzy
Date Posted: 22 Aug 2014 at 9:27pm
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There was a pond some hundred yards or more away from where I saw this one. If I'd lived nearer I would have tried to go sitting and watching the site. It really was the most unlikely looking place...
------------- Suz |
Posted By: AGILIS
Date Posted: 23 Aug 2014 at 1:45pm
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Hi WILL .Typical happenings just when things are thriving some twat goes and fills it in or chops it down.cant say the last time I see one but I do remember when out fishing from the R Thames to river all over the place they were always cruising the banks and where in most places, I think the mink out break that decimated them was in the mid eighties? also here in East Anglia you used to see the non native Coypu on the R Lark right near Bury st Eds but they were wiped out by the then water authorities saying they damaged the embankments on the rivers, what a load of twaddle, but then they were non native and had to go. Keith ------------- LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID |
Posted By: will
Date Posted: 23 Aug 2014 at 4:40pm
| Hi Keith, yes the mink are the main culprits for sure. Nice that the otters are driving out mink which is apparently allowing water vole to make a comeback in some areas, I think. I remember they were all over the place in the Thames especially in Oxfordshire up til the late 1980's when they virtually disappeared. One of the volunteer rangers at RSPB Rainham told me they reckon there's between 3 and 5 thousand water voles there now - not bad! |
Posted By: GemmaJF
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2014 at 9:46am
| Spotted a mink in Glemsford last weekend Keith. ran across the road by Pit 3. Shame as the river bank leading up to the weir there was always good for spotting water voles. |
Posted By: Liz Heard
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2014 at 2:07pm
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When i was a boy, they were very plentiful along the 3 mile stretch of the Thames and Severn Canal that i used to regularly walk. You would hear the tell-tale 'plop' sound they make when disturbed all the time. I still listen out when i walk there now, but not heard a single one in many years.  |
Posted By: AGILIS
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2014 at 6:33pm
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I found them very entertaining creatures cruising about nose out of water with little beady eyes on the look out then scrapping about on the side if the banks probably territorial disputes with close neighbours when I was younger I was always worried a pike might grab them, the sad thing is they were always there and part of rivers alas no more keith ------------- LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID |
Posted By: AGILIS
Date Posted: 24 Aug 2014 at 6:37pm
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I found them very entertaining creatures cruising about nose out of water with squinty little beady eyes on the look out, then scrapping and scuffling about on the side if the banks probably territorial disputes with close neighbours when I was younger I was always worried a pike might grab them, the sad thing is they were always there and part of our rivers alas no more this seems to be the trend today things we took for granted are not there any more like some of my sand lizard spots that we took for granted others took way from us without any one doing anything or any public protests all in the name of progress, keith ------------- LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID |
Posted By: will
Date Posted: 30 Aug 2014 at 7:52pm
I saw this youngster today: |