News Archive for 2011
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Amphibian and Reptile Conservation & British Herpetological Society Joint Scientific meeting 2011
This was held on Sunday 4th December in Bournemouth and had a selection of interesting talks, including recent research by Dr Anna Wilkinson on spatial learning in reptiles and amphibians. Moses the tortoise did really well - you should have seen the video! PS This wasn't her teaching a tortoise to yawn as widely reported on the web this autumn - that tortoise was Alexandra.
Last reptile record of the year?
An adult grass snake was found basking on the top of a tree stump in a thinned plantation near Whaley Thorns on 24 November. It was thought to be dead when seen by a contractor and one of our members but it rapidly shot off into the vegetation when disturbed.
Adders in crisis in England
That was the conclusion at the ARG-UK London SE Regional Conference last weekend (19th November), which focused on the adder. Kent Reptile & Amphibian Group, who organised the meeting, have been running their own Adders in Decline project over the past seven years, including mapping populations and doing regular counts at some sites. Derbyshire ARG has been contributing to the national Make the Adder Count monitoring project for almost as long and are contributing to the funding to revitalise and expand that project next year. Bits of the press release issued after the meeting were published in some papers or on their websites, although as is typical some extracted parts and got rather confused about the message. Read the press release in full on Chris Gleed-Owen's website at http://www.cgoecology.com/News/adders-in-crisis-declare-experts.html
Pond management on crested newt dewpond
On Saturday 5th November, a DARG work party managed to clear well over half of the Typha that had covered a large dewpond on the edge of the Peak District. Last completely cleared out by the farmer in the mid 1980's, the pond was home to a large population of great crested newts, smooth newts, frogs and toads. Thanks to Chris, Craig, Dave, Frank, Jake & Martin there is now more open water than has been seen for many years. Also thanks to the Peak Park Conservation Volunteers for the loan of the tools -read their blog at http://ppcv.wordpress.com/
Launch of the Lowland Derbyshire Biodiversity Action Plan 2011 to 2020
On Saturday 5th November, the new plan to cover the next decade was launched at the Biodiversity Partnership's Annual Forum held at Derby University. DARG is a partner organisation signed up to the Lowland Derbyshire Biodiversity Partnership and was represented at the meeting by our Chair.
Details on the next Herpetofauna Workers Meeting announced
This is being held on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th January at the Telford International Centre in Shropshire. We will be assisting in running a workshop on the Make the Adder Count project. Details are available from the ARC who are organising the event with assistance from ARGUK or from Derbyshire ARG's Secretary.
Derbyshire adders on OPAL website
OPAL has put an interview with DARG's Chris Monk on their website, illustrated by pictures from Carl Corbidge & Tracy Farrer two of the contributers to our annual surveys. http://www.opalexplorenature.org/Chris-Monk-adders/
Young adders born in 2011
In the last half of September there have been several sightings of new born adders at three locations across the Peak District by Carl Corbidge and local dragonfly expert Rod Dunn.
Derbyshire Biodiversity News
The Summer 2011 Newsletter has just been published. Download your copy from the news and newsletter page on their website http://www.derbyshirebiodiversity.org.uk/
First newly hatched grass snakes of 2011
4 newly hatched grass snakes were seen by one of our members on Sat 13 July.
ARG-UK Newsletter
The Spring 2011 Newsletter ARG Today No 9 has just been published. Download your copy from their publications page on the website http://www.arguk.org/arg-today-our-newsletter/
Derbyshire adders on TV
BBC East Midlands Today featured adders in their "Sally Goes Wild" slot in April. A clip of the film is on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-13121446 /
Derbyshire Biodiversity News
The Spring 2011 Newsletter has just been published. Download your copy from the news and newsletter page on their website http://www.derbyshirebiodiversity.org.uk/
Great Easter Newt Hunt
ARG UK and Amphibian & Reptile Conservation's Great Easter Newt Hunt took place between 22nd April and 2nd May and the data provided will be used for newt conservation. The project aimed to find out about our most widespread newts – the smooth and palmate newts – and see how much they use Britain’s garden ponds as habitat. Participants were asked to spend just 20 minutes on one day over Easter counting the newts in their ponds. They can also record any other amphibians they see and find links to other surveys they can get involved in. Newt hunters can find survey hints, ID information and submit their results on-line at: http://www.newthunt.org
Adder DNA Projects
Two Projects looking at the DNA of adders both started at the end of March. Natural England & the Institute of Zoology with help from Amphibian and Reptile Groups are looking at a selection of both large populations and small isolated groups of adders to see if isolation leads to in-breeding, gradual decline and loss of the species. It is thought that this may have contributed to loss of many adder sites particularly in SE England and the East Midlands. To read more look at the Natural England press release: http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/about_us/news/2011/280311.aspx
Meanwhile a second Project has started in Derbyshire to look at the genetics and landscape ecology of the Peak District adders. Group members who have been carrying out our adder surveys are assisting the researcher from Manchester Metropolitan University, who is taking DNA samples of adders across the National Park. This is to use genetics to determine how much mixing of breeding individuals occurs in Derbyshire and what natural or man made barriers might prevent it.
Derbyshire Toad news 2011
The dry weather in March caused a delay in the annual toad migration but the warm days eventually prompted movement at some sites across the County in the last week or two of the month. With the rain right at the end of March the toads started moving in large numbers.
First reptile records for 2011
The first adders seen this year, having emerged from hibernation, were observed on Friday 11th February. The first grass snake was seen basking on Thursday 24th February, surprisingly it was up on the moors not in a nice sheltered river valley and common lizards were out and about by the beginning of March. For slow-worm it was an unusual sighting on Tuesday 22nd February - this was a hibernating slow-worm being found a little way inside the entrance to a disused lead drift mine near Cromford by a member of the Derbyshire Bat Group. He was checking the site floor for bat droppings for evidence of the use of the disused mine by bats, and found a live but sluggish slow-worm by pile of rock rubble 20 metres inside the entrance.
First frog spawn of 2011
Reports started to come in during the last week in February of the first appearances of frog spawn in the county. From information posted on the derbyshirenaturalhistory e-group the record for the first sighting seems to be 23rd February in the far north west of the county in the lodge ponds (mill ponds) in Dinting Vale at Glossop.
Frog disease
After the prolonged wintry weather at the end of 2010, several people had numbers of overwintering frogs die in their ponds. However there is concern over the spread of amphibian diseases, one of which due to the ranavirus (commonly known as red-leg) now appears to be present in this part of the country. Having initially been seen as a problem starting many years ago mostly in garden ponds in the south east of England, in the last couple of years it has been reported in the Midlands and around Manchester. This disease is most common during the summer when the virus is activated by warm temperatures. It's characterised by finding lots of dead frogs within a short space of time, which are usually very thin and/or lethargic before death. They may also have noticeable ulcers on the skin or significant haemorrhaging under the skin giving blood red colouring - hence the name red-leg. If you think you have an outbreak of this disease then then please visit the series of pages on amphibian disease on the "How we save them" pages on the Froglife website There is a form to fill in and return if you think you have frog deaths due to ranavirus. However don't forget during the stress of the mating/spawning season many frogs might die of natural causes or fall prey to animals such as cats and large birds, eg crows or herons, drawn to the crowd of noisy amphibians. Also common frog can be very varied in colour, so active reddish coloured frogs are no cause for concern.
