Nature Features

Over the next few years, work will take place on expanding Abberton Reservoir which will see the water level raised by 3.2 metres.

As a result, some of the surrounding areas will disappear underwater, including the Essex Wildlife Trust's visitor centre and nature reserve.

Darren and team have worked hard for this moment

Another consequence of the work is the need to find new habitats for some of the wildlife residing on the site - including a colony of water voles.

The work began in April, but now the rodents have been released into their new residency by a team led by the EWT's Water for Wildlife Officer, Darren Tansley.

"They've spent the last six weeks down in Kent at a medical facility with holding pens, where they've been health screened, micro-chipped and are all fit and healthy," says Darren.

The vole's new home was originally dug for water fowl, but as Miranda Davies from Essex & Suffolk Water explains, it is also a perfect place to put their furry friends.

The new site was originally dug for waterfowl

"It was for those that like shallow water, to give them somewhere quiet to sit whilst turning the main part of the reservoir into a construction site," explains Miranda.

"But luckily, the way we dug it works just as well for the water voles too, so they can share it with the birds."

A vole new world

Releasing the animals into their new surroundings is not just a case of tipping them out and letting them scurry off, according to Darren.

"We've had to dig a sort of 'pyramidal' release pen," he explains. "They're like little aluminium 'bunkers' for them which are dug into the ground.

Flags marked the sites of the release pens

"We then pop the voles in there with all of their bedding and some food and they literally just burrow their way out and make their own burrow systems.

Despite the hard work involved in getting to this point, Darren says it's worth all of the effort.

"It's inevitable some of the voles will get killed by things like herons," he admits.

"But we're releasing enough of them that hopefully enough will breed - and they do breed very quickly - so that once they get away I think they'll be no stopping them."

BBC Essex's Renee Hockley-Byam has been to see the site of the voles new home with Darren and Miranda. Click on the link below to here more.