Our house is built on poles, and our site is sloped and pretty much bush.

I've noticed an area lately that is always damp and muddy, and as far as I can recall didn't always used to be like this.  It definitely got wet/muddy in winter as some of our stormwater discharges into the bush upstream of this area, but I wasn't expecting it to be so damp across summer.  The area is adjacent to a creek that runs through our property, this creek being the stormwater path for many of the houses uphill from us.

I dug a small trench through the area and even on sunny days I'm seeing a small trickle of water running through it.  Being sunny we definitely didn't discharge any of our stormwater above it.

It could simply be saturated from previous rainfall and just slowly making it's way out.  Perhaps the creek uphill has altered or something and is now saturating the land differently.

Or - it might indicate a small leak on my or my immediate neighbours water pipes.

Turning off the water supply for a long time probably isn't an option, the trickle is small so I think it would need to be off all day (or longer) to see something?  And the neigbour has no interest in turning her water off.  She did have to fix a water leak recently though, so perhaps its come back or sprung anew.

I wondered if there's a cheap test I can do to see if it's town supply water, I could dig a small hole and get the water to puddle into it and then scoop some up.   Is there such a thing?