3/9/09: Wasp Spider found on Barnehurst allotment

I found my first ever Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi) today. It was first recorded in this country in 1922, and appears to have somehow been introduced from the continent. Previously confined to the south coast, it has more recently started spreading northwards.

This female, which is much larger and more exotic-looking than a male of the species, was disturbed when I was clearing some grass, weeds and dead Phacelia tanacetifolia stems from around some irises on my Dad's plot on the Grasmere Rd allotment site in Barnehurst. If there was a web, I inadvertently destroyed it.

Female Wasp Spider on Barnehurst allotment site

Enlarged view

3/9/09: Barnehurst allotment Lizard blizzard

At least 7 (and possibly more) different individual Common Lizards on my Dad's allotment at the Grasmere Rd site in Barnehurst today.

A sometimes blustery cool breeze, and the odd bit of dark cloud, were enough to lower the temperature to a level at which the Lizards needed to come out and bask quite a bit. The two salvaged car tyres again proved popular, with a record-equalling 4 animals using one, and 2 using the other. Here are some pictures of them (taken on a 3MP mobile phone cam, without good close focussing - so some have been cropped and enlarged ......).

As usual, the majority of the Lizards seen (5 out of 7) were on the banking below the main path, either side of the steps

View of the most popular tyre - part-buried, with bits of rubble and a clump of grass in the centre


Two adults on a tyre

Two adults on tyre, one to right trying to be inconspicuous

Adult on one of the bits of rock placed in 'embayments' cut in the grass on the bank. These provide additional basking sites

Very young lizard poses for the camera on the mound of a disused ant's nest



Two's company as a second youngster - with a re-grown tail - appears (right)

18/6/09: Here be Dragons ... and Toads

Common Lizards and Common Toads, both now UK Biodiversity Action Plan Priority Species because of a worrying decline in numbers, occur on the Grasmere Rd. allotment site in Barnehurst. Both were seen there today. The site was once an orchard and has remnant heathland vegetation, including Pedunculate Oak, Silver Birch, Gorse, Broom and Bracken. A third UK BAP species, the Slow Worm, is found in my garden less than 100 metres away, but I have never found one on the allotments, despite searching suitable in places.

Yeah, we know you're watching us - we're watching you too

Here a pair of Common Lizards (Zootoca (Lacerta) vivipara) enjoy some habitat enhancement in the form of an old tyre, part-buried in the ground, with a 'bolt-hole' / possible hibernation facility excavated underneath at the rear, and bits of broken brick and rubble - also found on site - and a clump of grass put in the middle.

Last autumn I found four lizards on this tyre at once. Tyres are known to be lizard 'magnets' because they warm up quickly and retain some heat so are ideal for basking/raising body temperature, especially in cooler and changeable weather.

Here's a closer view of one of them - not pin-sharp because my mobile phone cam has trouble knowing exactly where to focus in this sort of shot.

Surrounding gardens are unlikely to provide suitable lizard habitat, so it's likely this is an 'island' population that has survived here since the site became hemmed in by houses in around 1933.

And here's a two inch body length young toad. A couple of larger ones were seen recently. Numbers are never high here, but specimens keep turning up, so there must be a breeding pond not too far away. There isn't one on the site.


Juvenile Common Toad (Bufo bufo)

Other amphibian species here are the Common Frog and Smooth Newt. The latter has bred in a pond made from an old bath.