Ratty Territory?

I saw a pic in the paper this morning of Stig, a former police sniffer dog, who is working in a team monitoring water voles. They're under threat from the introduced American mink.

This afternoon I finally found out how to access Marshgate Springs nature reserve and went exploring. I spent quite some time on an old rusty pedestrian bridge over the railway and a lake. The reflections were fantastic.

By the time the golden hour arrived I was walking along the River Stort. Standing in the position from which the above was taken with my wide angle on, I was very excited to see what I think was a water vole swimming from left to right, making its little kelvin wake. How annoying that I wasn't using my 100-400mm lens.

I swapped lenses and decided to hang about in case Ratty reappeared. A man in wellies approached and asked me if the narrow boat was mine and I explained why I was waiting. It turned out that he is a water vole expert working on making a video for the local wildlife trust. The mink around here have been controlled and voles are being re-introduced. 

While we were talking this pair of kayakers emerged from the dark, river tree-tunnel into the gorgeous golden hour light.