When I started this Blog in Oct 13, it was to create a place for me to put my photos and use them to showcase the excellent birds & other wildlife in the UK, as well as, abroad. I didn't have any idea how the Blog would be received, but I hoped that if I found it useful & interesting, then others would also do so. Today's Blog Post is number 800, I've recently pasted the 550,000 hits on the Blog and it's been viewed from 168 countries. All of which are far higher than the modest plans I had when I started the Blog. Anyway, enough flag-waving for the Blog and onto the subject of today's Post.
I volunteer on the Dorset Wildlife Trust Brownsea reserve every Wednesday during the months when the island is open. The volunteering is a mixture of public engagement and pointing out the wildlife, especially the Birds and Red Squirrels on the reserve. It also gives me the opportunity to have a look on the lagoon at various points in the day.
On this afternoon, one of the DWT wardens, Jonny, had been filming a live virtual meeting in the Avocet hide with some of the other volunteers. When it finished, I headed back into the hide for a final check of the lagoon before I left the island. Within a few minutes, Jonny came back into the hide to announce that a young Water Vole had been seen feeding by the main track. The other volunteers & I quickly left the hide & found the Water Vole was a couple of feet off the track at the edge of some long grass by some Brambles. Not typical Water Vole habitat. On a few occasions, it disappeared back into the vegetation as additional people joined the group, but when we stayed still, its confidence increased & it popped out again to grab another blade of grass to eat.
Water Voles are not uncommon on Brownsea, but they are generally very shy & they quickly disappear out of view or underwater. I've only seen them once before on a visit in Sep 2010, when I popped over to see some old friends who were visiting from Southampton.
It was time to head back to the villa, drop off the radio & head off to catch the ferry off Brownsea.