The river Thames circles Cookham to the north, east and west, and connecting streams provide rich wildlife habitats. We undertake survey work to assess the quality of these waterways and identify ways to improve their wildlife-support capacity.
There are also ponds scattered across the community, many in our gardens. These areas area home to many plant species, some of them very rare.
WildCookham has undertaken a survey of otter, American mink and water vole populations in the River Thames and its tributaries near Cookham. Several rafts are currently located on waterways around the village. These are fitted with a pad which leaves a print if any animal walks across it. We are particularly interested in detecting signs of the predator mink.
One of WildCookham’s major projects was the reintroduction of water voles to the area. They have a special local connection as Cookham was the home of Kenneth Grahame, who wrote ’Wind in the Willows’ in which Ratty, in fact a water vole, plays a prominent role.
Water voles were common along the Thames until the 1990s when a mixture of habitat loss and the American mink predator, a mammal introduced some decades earlier to the UK, resulted in their disappearance. Their decline was rapid and the number of sites where voles were recorded declined by 94% during the 1990s. Water voles are on the list of Endangered Species and are protected by law. They live in burrows in riverbanks and feed on the reeds and sedges found there. Water voles are most often heard in the ‘plop’ as they drop from a riverbank into the water. They can be mistaken for the more common brown rat which can also swim but which has a different shaped head and a longer bare tail. Local residents are being asked to email wildcookham@gmail.com if they spot or hear any water voles.