Wetland Wildlife - toads, frogs, water voles...

The area is fortunate to be home to valued wetland wildlife such as Water Voles ('Ratty') whose presence between the Binsted Rife and Arundel has been verified for MAVES by wetland wildlife expert Fran Southgate of our partner organisation the Sussex Wildlife Trust.  Our supporter Mick Jenner has made this lovely 10 minute film of the water voles of Mill Road, Arundel.

The Water Vole edited with edius re-encoded to hd 08/02/2012 from Nature-on-film on Vimeo.

Also Great Crested Newts, and Eels. (There are also ponds in Binsted and Lyminster which, in local folklore, were once home to Sussex water-dragons called Knuckers.)  

Water voles are also present in our area, and the wetlands are host to many winter waders.

We want to understand the life of the many ponds ditches streams and the river running through our area, how they relate to one another, and what if anything might be helpful to enhance these habitats' wildlife value.

MAVES volunteers have been working in Binsted to protect toads crossing roads in their season.  Watch this lovely and intriguing video made at the Binsted Madonna Pond by Mick Jenner and you will begin to see why:

UWOL 46 The Mating Game lottery from Nature-on-film on Vimeo.

WSCC have kindly provided a Toads Crossing sign and an Owl box 

ARC are including our toad crossing sites on their Toad Watch program