News
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Page last updated 22 February 2012.
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First Adder of 2012
After the cold icy, spell in early February, Ben Wyke recorded the first snake of the year on Sunday 19th February - a cold day but sunny.
2012 Herpetofauna Workers Meeting
A successful meeting was held at Telford over the last weekend in January. Two well attended workshop sessions were held on the re-launch of the Make the Adder Count Project this spring. A website about the project is now live at http://www.maketheaddercount.org/
Help needed for Glossop, Wingerworth and Radbourne Toad crossings
Derbyshire ARG is attempting to re-start the former toad crossings at Glossop, Wingerworth and Radbourne, where the former organisers and volunteers have all moved away in the past few years. A training day at Wingerworth is being organised on Saturday 18th February (see events page), more help is needed for Radbourne where Kelvin is organising coverage this year and also volunteers needed at Glossop. Contact the Secretary for the later two sites. Please volunteer!
ARG UK Winter 2011/12 Newsletter
The latest edition of the newsletter (number 10) is available for downloading from the ARG-UK website. It includes an article on our adder survey in the Peak District on page 14 with photos taken by Steve of David Carter carrying out DNA sampling.
Happy New Year to all our members
We are now counting down to the day when the first adder ventures out, will it be as early as the 28th of January as in 2008 or late February as happens in most years.
2012 Herpetofauna Workers Meeting Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th January
Time is running out to book your place on this meeting being held at the Telford International Centre in Shropshire. We will be assisting Jon Cranfield in running a workshop on the Make the Adder Count project. The deadline for registration is Monday 16th January, details are on the ARC website, they are organising the event this year with some assistance from ARG-UK. The keynote speaker on Sunday is the naturalist & broadcaster Nick Baker.
Derbyshire ARG providing training for Derby City Pond Wardens Association
We are running a training session on amphibians for the Derby City Pond Wardens Association in April, as part of their OPAL funded PINE Project. PINE stands for Ponds Identification Novice to Expert and their Project has had workshops from local experts last year on Odonata and Pond Invertebrates & Plants. It also includes their sharing skills with classroom & pond dipping sessions with children at schools in the city.
Adders probably extinct in Nottinghamshire
Without a confirmed sighting since 2005, it now seems likely that the species has become extinct in our neighbouring county despite the availability of good habitat in the Sherwood Forest area. A thorough survey by members of Notts ARG and other adder experts in the area of the last sighting in spring 2011 failed to find any snakes. Nick Crouch, Nottinghamshire's County Ecologist, said its disappearance was "very worrying" as the species was a key indicator of the health of the food chain and appealed to the public to report any sightings.
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Read the 2011 news archive on the 2011 news page
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