Tuesday 4th. March 2014

Didn't want to travel too far today , so with Phil / Sharp by Nature posting recently sightings of Water Vole and Bittern recently at Hew Hythe , that's where I headed . As Phil doesn't get down there so often these days , I took the chance , and trespassed onto his patch . I arrived in beautiful sunshine , albeit a bit nippy . Parking at the water treatment plant entrance , I followed two ladies with their dogs along the track towards the bridge over the millstream . They were soon well ahead , and to my

surprise , sitting on the far bank of the ditch was a Water Vole , and I had only been on site for a matter of minutes . I followed it along the ditch as it searched out it's breakfast , taking little notice of me . Eventually , it entered the water , and a few seconds later dived , and that was the last I saw of

it . On the way up to the scrub areas , hope of hearing an early migrant didn't materialise , bit I must admit , birdsong as a whole was rather limited on such a sunny morning . En route , a splash of

colour , along with the Blackthorn/Sloe , this Wild  Cherry / Prunus avium , earlier than usual .
The ditch alongside the scrub areas , which at the moment look more like marshes , provided a

second Water Vole , sat in the sunshine , seemingly contemplating it's own reflection in the water . This one was not so happy to sit and be photographed , swimming to some dead reeds , and

disappearing amongst them , not to be seen again . Crossing the railway line to an almost birdless Abbey Mead and a very muddy trudge between it and the river , produced very little apart from Grey Herons flying to and from their nests on the far bank .Then , as I turned the corner between Abbey Mead and the Sunken Marsh , I was caught red-handed by the man himself , Phil . He too was looking for the Bittern in the area , so we joined forces , searching the reedbed . Phil's younger eyes did get a fleeting glimpse of a Bittern , but I failed to do so . A look at the river produced nothing more than a few gulls and a pair of Teal on the far bank , but later we did see a distant Common Buzzard in the area . A look from the high ground between Abbey Mead and Brooklands didn't refind the Bittern , but further along we found Coltsfoot / Tussilago farfara in flower , probably the second

of the Daisy family to flower after Winter Heliotrope . Very little seen back to the railway crossing , or for that matter , down towards the diver's bridge . We headed towards where I had the second

Water Vole , and a bit further down the ditch , we found a small animal , possibly one of last year's young . This animal performed very well , the cameras continually clicking . A bit later , a larger

animal appeared , possibly a female adult , and after several trips up the bank , returned with nettle leaves ands sat in the open to eat them . This was my fourth animal . We decided to leave the pair in peace , heading back towards the diver's bridge , noticing quite a lot of evidence of Water Voles on the far bank . As we looked at the evidence , Phil noticed the bankside vegetation moving on our side . We slowly worked our way to the area , to find a Water Vole , about a metre up the vegetation ,

looking for fresh leaves . It sat there motionless for about half a minute , before dropping back down to the bank . That one made the day , but it wasn't over yet , for as we walked further along the ditch , we had a small animal , swimming away from us , and only in view for a few seconds , before diving into the bankside vegetation . We both assumed Water Vole , but talking about it later , it was smaller than the youngster seen earlier , and given that the mating season is only just about to start , we thought that it could just have been a Water Shrew . They have been seen in the area in the past , but we will never be certain . We finally got to the diver's bridge , but found nothing there , and a final look for a Bittern at it's usual spot , in previous years , failed too , probably due to the abnormal amount of water in the lake . There we split , Phil heading along the millstream to his car and me back to mine at the other entrance . A very enjoyable few hours , and good to meet up and catch up Phil .