One Of Our Rarest & Most Elusive Mammals

Little Ouse At Thelnetham – Saturday 30^th May 2015 

Little Ouse River

Thelnetham Mill

As it was, Dawn, our Daughter-In-Law’s birthday we went over to Garboldisham to deliver a card and presents and afterwards went down to Thelnetham to the Little Ouse River to see if there was anything about. It was a lovely bright day with a stiffish breeze and the temperature was 14˚C.

Mink Trap

Jan walked up to the bridge and was taking a few snaps and I stayed in the car. I saw a Whitethroat making its way through the undergrowth along the field edge. When Jan came back to the car I could see by the look on her face that she had seen something by the river.

When she showed me the video it was a Water Vole. It was only a short clip but even that was worth having. We decided to go back and have a proper look at the river. It is only narrow here and some of the banks are quite overgrown, in fact the ideal place for Water Voles. The video is on our YouTube Channel.

While Jan explored further upstream, I was positioned on my stool at a suitable viewpoint. After seeing a disturbance in the water I caught a glimpse of a Water Vole making its way along the far bank under the cover of the vegetation.

Jan and I walked further up the river and at one point we had to give way to a Ewe and her two biggish lambs. We positioned ourselves at a point where there was quite a bit of birdsong and eventually we saw a Blackcap, male Reed Bunting and a Spotted Flycatcher perched high on the top of a tree. There was also plenty of Butterfly action on the far bank with Orange Tips chasing eeach other up and down the bank and Large Whites doing the same.

We moved a bit further back downstream and we had good views of male and female Reed Buntings and Blue Tits collecting caterpillars. There was also a fair number of Common Blue Damselflies about all in the process of mating or finding a mate.

We moved back towards the bridge and positioned ourselves on the bend and we had another brief glimpse of a Water Vole swimming across the river. The whole time we were there we could here Cuckoos in the distance.

This part of the Little Ouse is part of the LOHP (Little Ouse Headwaters Project) which is a registered charity set up in 2002 by local residents to restore and conserve the Little Ouse River, between Blo’ Norton and Thelnetham, to it’s former glory. 

I was the Rector of the Upper Waveney Benefice at the time and I was invited to be a member of the committee but I was involved with so many other charities and committees I just didn’t have the time to spare. I can now see that they have done a marvellous job. It is strange that sometimes you have to move away from an area to see the beauty of it. The same happened when we lived in Torquay, I was far too busy to really appreciate the beauty of the area where we lived. This charity has won some awards for their conservation work and long may they continue. If you want to find out more about their work you can find their website here:

http://www.lohp.co.uk

We only spent a few hours there bit it was very rewarding.

What we saw:

Whitethroat

Blackcap (male)

Reed Bunting (male & female)

Blue Tit

Pheasant

Moorhen

Spotted Flycatcher

Cuckoo (heard in the distance)

Water Vole

Orange Tip Butterfly**

Large White Butterfly**

Common Blue Damselfly**

* = Too many to count

** = Several

Keep your eyes peeled and good spotting.