Add an Adder project

The national Herpetological Conservation Trust is keen to receive any records from Britain of adders, Vipera berus, past or present with the aim of building a picture of how these reptiles have declined or increased in various parts of the country.

For further details see http://www.adder.org.uk/

Frog in toilet query

Peter Hodge, the Sussex beetle recorder has asked the following:

"About 1/2 hour ago (5.30pm) I discovered a young Common Frog perched on the porcelain rim of our downstairs toilet. The only way it could possibly have got there is by swimming up through the sewer.

Is this something that frogs are known to do? If it is then it goes a long way to explaining why frogs sometimes turn up in places where there are no ponds or freshwater."

Does anyone know the answer?

Register for NARRS - the National Recording Scheme

A message from Chris Glee-Owen at the Herpetological Conservation Trust to all people who would like to take part in NARRS (National Amphibian and Reptile Recording Scheme) monitoring programmes next year.

"Please pass this on to other members of SARG, societies, recording groups, friends, family and workmates who you think might want to join in the fun. We have created a register of potential NARRS participants where you can add your name and email address online, to be kept in the loop for NARRS developments. There is no commitment, and the aim is for us to build up a better picture of the numbers of potential surveyors and their geographical distribution."

"Please do take a minute to add your name to the register by going to the NARRS website and clicking on "What is NARRS?", and "Sign up for NARRS". Or you can click this link."

Creating lizard hibernacula

In the June edition of British Wildlife, there is an interesting short feature on hibernacula for viviparous lizards, Zootoca vivipara, (aka common lizard, Lacerta vivipara) in the Habitat management news section.

This refers to the excellent Conservation Evidence website and two on-line papers available there:

Aldus N., Parmenter J. & Showler D. (2005) Creating hibernacula for common lizards Lacerta vivipara, The Ham, Suffolk, England. ConservationEvidence.com, Case 180.

Creating a reptile hibernaculum, Newbury Bypass, Berkshire, England
Extracted from: Stebbings R. (2000) Reptile hibernacula - providing a winter refuge. Enact, English Nature (England), 8, 2, 4-7

Both are available here: conservation evidence.

Newt-eating grass snakes

Our neighbours in Sedlescombe, East Sussex have up to seven grass snakes at a time in their small garden pond.

On one occasion one was photographed consuming a hapless newt (see lower picture) while a companion looked on with an expression of rather snake-like envy. In the last few days the snakes seem to have moved on, but they have left plenty of newts behind for future generations.

Adders galore

Dave Monk from Sedlescombe near Hastings saw large numbers of adders, as well as slow-worms, in Streetfield Wood in the north of the parish this April.

One of his photos shows an adder and a slow-worm sharing the same sunny patch (apparently without conflict) and the other shows a classic 'nest of vipers' with four adders (I think there are four) enjoying a party. Adders seem to be having a very good year at Sedlescombe and, I think, some other places so any other sightings would be welcome.

2006 Annual General Meeting at Arlington

Despite the heavy rain a small group of members of the Committee met at the Fisherman's Lodge at Arlington Reservoir on 21 May 2006 and had a useful meeting. Among other things, we agreed to use more electronic means of communication and this weblog is one of the things that has been established as a result.

Another exciting initiative for 2007, our 20th anniversary,is the possibility of a book on Sussex reptiles and amphibians. We will post more on this when we have news.

The annual report and accounts will, of course, be published in for forthcoming newsletter.