11/4/10: Herpetological heaven: Marsh Frog, Great Crested Newt and Adder

I've been into reptiles and amphibians ever since I can remember, but still haven't seen most of the less common species found in the UK, partly because I haven't lived that near to where any of them occur. Some of those omissions were rectified this past week, two by design and one by accident.

On a sunny 8th April I headed to the Thames Rd Wetland site on an indirect route to Mottingham.

Quite unexpectedly around 18 frogs were seen jumping into the water from around a foot back from the 'lake' margin. This they did whilst I was still some distance away, as I walked along the south-facing side of the site. Basking, coupled with this sort of avoidance behaviour, is characteristic of the 'Green Frog' complex (Marsh/Edible/Pool - which interbreed) and not the native Common Frog. Only one re-surfaced in a reasonable amount of time, confirming it wasn't a Common Frog, and a brief but fair view of another that at first landed on some algae provided further evidence. There was no prominent dorsal stripe. A definitive ID will depend on catching and measuring some - which looks like it won't be easy.

Mottingham station was the meeting point for a Froglife Great Crested Newt survey by torchlight.

I was one of 6 people who joined Sivi Sivanesen (employed by Froglife, now part of the Reptile and Amphibian Conservation) to help in her work of surveying more than a hundred ponds across London for the presence (or not) and population sizes of Great Crested Newt colonies.

The Great Crested Newt is the biggest and least common of the three species of newts found in the British Isles and is one of only three amphibians which are protected by the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. It is the subject of much research and monitoring in an effort to reverse the decline in its numbers.


Going out after dark and shining powerful torches into ponds is one of the three main ways of monitoring newts, and this is what we were doing on this occasion. We found GCNs at all three sites I was 'on board' for, and in three out of four ponds looked at before I had to head for home.

One, in a fairly open location, the margins of which comprised flooded grass, was swarming with Smooth Newts (our commonest species), and more than 60 Great Crested Newts were seen. Phenomenal. Rather gruesomely, two GCNs were fighting over a dead Smooth Newt for supper.

On the following weekend I was priveleged to see a number of Adders at the best of the four known sites for them in Greater London, in the company of an expert in their conservation.


This female Adder - being handled with care for educational purposes - was soon released.


Male Adder - at home in London!

It was somewhat surreal seeing these fabulous animals so close to busy main roads and with big buildings on the skyline. They aren't at all threatening, and are far smaller than I suspect most people think they are.

23/3/10: From 'River Grottage' to constructing Snake's nests

Another Cray Riverkeeper Volunteers bash.

Spent the morning with Gaynor bagging the bl**dy awful 'grot spot' on the downstream side of Maiden Lane bridge. The mindlessness of the morons responsible is mind-numbing. They drive all the way there to fly-tip stuff that could go to the Council dump less than two miles away. They leave piles of beer cans and plastic bottles that the Council collects from the kerbside on a weekly basis, and they chuck litter on the floor a few feet from a litter bin. Tests one's 'liberal'-mindedness and makes the idea of DNA-testing this stuff and shooting the bast**ds seem an attractive proposition ......

Found a couple of less-than-a-year-old Smooth Newts hibernating together under some plastic sacking, and there were a few clumps of frogspawn in satill water by the downstream footings of the bridge.

Stupidly failed to take a 'before' picture, but here's an illustration of the scale of the operation (a few sacks were of rubbish collected further along the path) from afterwards.


In the afternoon, three of us put on the chest-waders and went into the water at the Thames Road 'wetland' site to rake up some of the Reed and Reedmace we cut the other week and pile it up to make potential nest incubation sites for Grass Snakes (CRV Co-ordinator Ashe Hurst reported finding the remains of a dead one on the sewer bank later that evening). Three others litter-picked the surrounds.



Three of the four Grass Snake nesting sites constructed from layers of cut Reed, Reedmace and other vegetation can be made out along one of the raised banks in this rather gloomy late-afternoon shot

Another big problem along this end of the Cray is the large amount of Giant Hogweed, seen here coming back into growth below the south side embankment near Maiden Lane

These Viola odorata up on the sewer embankment are, I think, a new record for me at the 'wetland' site

25/7/09: Butterflies, birds and a buried newt

In my Barnehurst garden today:

- 1 x Peacock butterfly, possinly the same one as the other day
- several Gatekeepers, including a mating pair
- 1 x Speckled Wood

- 1 x Greenfinch (the first for a while)
- 1 x Dunnock

- 3 x 22-spot Ladybirds on an Aquilegia plant. This species eats fungi (mildew) on the soil surface or on low-growing plants.

A good site for helping identify Ladybirds is:

http://www.ladybird-survey.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/londonla.htm

And then there was a male Smooth Newt, found hiding out in a plastic sack amongst stones being kept to put in the foundations when repairing terracing in this hillside garden. The species has been seen in a pond next door, but this is the first one in my garden for a very long time.