Cromford Canal Water Voles

Today saw me going after something cute and cuddly for change the water vole, the fastest declining mammal in the UK. Cromford Canal is a excellent site to see them and also holds a good population of rather friendly little grebes (above). I've never been to the canal and not seen a vole so the pressure was on not the break my record!

In some of the thicker areas of weeds i could hear a deep croaking sounds and found some common frogs which is unusual for the middle of the day but made for some up close images.

The canal is mostly unused so this means the water is very clear and you can see the pike swimming in the all the vegetation, i filmed this pike with my Underwater Camera (this is screen grab from the film). Theirs
 a good number of pike in the canal but you hardly see any other species of fish so its mystery what they eat! (though i did see one grab a frog)

In the end i was lucky enough to see four water voles along a 5 mile stretch of the canal but this one showed itself the best. They can draw quite a crowd and you often see groups of wildlife photographers on the banks after them so i try to go on weekdays when its less busy.

BBC Wildlife Local Patch Reporter
Jack Perks

@JackPerksPhoto
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Grayling & Pike in the Peak District

Grayling other wise known as the lady of the stream are a truly beautiful fish and a member of the trout family. One of the things I've started doing is trying to capture fish behaviour in this case males competing for the prime position and females.

This grayling bumped into the camera a few times! normally they can be quite a shy fish

This male had chased all others away and stayed in this area for a while

Grayling Fighting Video

Not to far away in Cromford Canal there are good numbers of pike

I was a bit unsure what they eat as the only other fish i saw was a brown trout which was actually bigger then the pike and attacked them!

The pike seemed to be gathering for breeding and the pike in the canal also seemed a bit smaller then there river cousins likely because of habitat size and food availability.

Hints -

- Take it slowly the fish are very spooky!
- Visibility is everything and you need it to get the clear shots
- Make sure you wash off after as there are plenty of nasty diseases in rivers like weils disease



www.jackperksphotography.com