slow worm

I like to take the opportunity which the end of the year presents to look back over what I’ve seen and encountered. Some fall nicely into groups so do check out trees, wildflowers, butterflies, bees and invertebrates on their own posts!

The remainder are individual species or places which don’t form a group, but which are an important part of the year just passed. I hope you enjoy!

Easegill Bat Surveys

I was lucky to be invited along to a hibernation check in the caves in Easegill, Cumbria by a friend in the bat group there. We found a number of hibernating myotis and brown long-eared bats in the various cave systems, along with the tissue moths, herald moths and cave spiders which use the same habitats over winter. It was a great day out in some stunning scenery, and the opportunity to do a spot of caving whilst searching for wildlife was a real treat! You can read more, and watch a short compilation video, on this post from January 2017.

Snowy walk along Stanage Edge

It takes around an hour and a half for us to get to some of the most stunning walks in the Peak District; a bit of a trek but always worth the visit especially if there’s snow to line the fields and de-mark the landscape with its series of hedges and stone walls. I love too how the hills in the far distance can give an illusion of mountains when they become snow-covered!

Smooth newt – Lissotriton vulgaris

I couldn’t resist this photograph when we were undertaking translocations at the beginning of the year. The legislative driver behind the translocation is the great crested newt, but we take the opportunity to move any species we encounter to a place of safety. With the juveniles, such as this little smooth newt, you need to keep a sharp eye to make sure you spot them all!

Common frog – Rana temporaria

Spring is one of the most rewarding times to have a garden pond – when the croaking begins and the surface is a mass of calling frogs. This was taken on a cool March day when the frogs had decided that spring had sprung! In this photo, I tried to capture the turbulence of the water which these amorous amphibians bring to a placid garden pond.

Slow worm – Anguis fragilis

We encountered this slow worm under a piece of corrugated metal in the woods near Woodhall Spa in the early summertime. There had been a rainshower which caught us out and the slow worms too had taken shelter. As the sun came out and the corrugated metal began to warm, the chances of catching one reduced significantly as they are anything but slow when they want to be! These reptiles are in fact legless lizards rather than snakes. Their habit of sheltering beneath these artificial refugia forms the basis of the reptile survey technique we use in ecological consultancy to find out whether reptiles are present on a particular site.

Dandelion seedhead before the full moon

The was taken at Muston Meadows at midnight when the moon was full and I couldn’t resist a walk. The dandelion seedheads glowed white against the dark grass but I was struggling to capture this in a photograph – then I thought this might make an interesting angle!

Shropshire Hills

We spent a few days over the May bank holiday in Ireland for a wedding, coming back via Anglesey and spending a night in Shropshire on our way back east. We walked over the Long Mynd at dusk, heading back towards our campsite, and this was the view as we began to descend.

Church of Saint Mary, Whitby

A weekend camping near Robin Hood’s Bay in the summer found us in Whitby before walking back along the coast. This is the taken at the Church of Saint Mary – set above the town and referenced in Dracula. I was struck with this view of the tombstones dark against the long meadow grasses and wished this was a more common sight – cemeteries and churchyards can be beautiful places full of life after death, if they’re managed sensitively for wildlife rather than manicured as bowling greens!

Curbar Edge, Derbyshire

We had a survey site which saw me out in the Peak District until 7pm one evening in August – after which I took the opportunity to see the heather and take a walk along Curbar Edge at sunset. This is the view out across from the Edge as the sun was sinking low on the horizon.

Vancouver Island

The following are a few photographs from Vancouver Island this year – we encountered some spectacular wildlife and were amazed by the scenery. You can read more in my blog posts here, but below are a few highlights.

Anna’s Hummingbird in Victoria

American red squirrel at Long Beach, Tofino

Black squirrel in Stanley Park, Vancouver

Orca’s from Victoria

Grey heron reflection against the vending machines on the marina in Vancouver

Slow worm – Anguis fragilis

This tiny slow worm was one of this year’s juveniles – we were surveying a site in Somerset and this was one of seven young ones which appeared under a single survey mat where the sun warmed a bank at the edge of the site. When I picked it up, it wrapped itself around my finger but was so small that the nose and tail didn’t quite meet!

Sunrise on the day of Storm Ophelia

This photograph was taken of the countryside in Warwickshire on the day Storm Ophelia swept across the UK. At that time, I didn’t realise what was causing the effect but was just taken by the colours – it turned out that the day was to be filled with the pseudo-apocolyptic light brought on by the Sahara sands.

Cattle at Muston Meadows

Muston Meadows is an ancient haymeadow and a National Nature Reserve in Leicestershire. The site is managed with a late-summer hay cut and is grazed in the winter by cattle. I visited one frosty morning in December and they were delighted to have a visitor, charging over before stopping and checking me out. They then accompanied me all the way off the site so perhaps their role is security as well as site management!

Icicles under Burbage Bridge

On a snowy cold day in December, I took a walk through the white from the Longshaw Estate in Derbyshire, through woodland and across tors and encountering these beautiful icicles hanging beneath the bridge which takes the road over Burbage Brook.

Clematis seedhead – Clematis vitalba

These are also commonly known as old man’s beard and it’s easy to see why! I came across these seedheads in a hedgerow on a survey site in Bedfordshire where the wind had left them with this shape over time – I liked the feeling of motion which they held even when still. It seemed appropriate for seeds which are waiting for their time to take to the wind and begin a new plant elsewhere in the landscape.

Teasel seedheads – Dipsacus fullonum

On the same site as the clematis above, I also found an amazing stand of teasel seedheads. These striking plants are excellent for wildlife – in the summer they provide an abundance of nectar for pollinators such as bees and butterflies, and the winter seedheads will play host to flocks of goldfinches foraging for the seeds.

One of the main aspects of my job as an ecologist is conducting reptile surveys – sadly I’ve never conducted one in or around Grantham but I would love to know what can be found in the local area. If you have seen any reptiles, I would love to know – as would ARG UK who have the Record Pool where you can record your sighting.

The standard way to survey for reptiles is to lay down sheets of refugia – often metal tins, carpet tiles or pieces of roofing felt are used – in suitable reptile habitat, then come back and check to see any reptiles which are either sheltering underneath them or using them to warm up as the sun heats the refugia. This works very well with some species but is less successful at detecting others, such as adders. An alternative way is to approach suitable basking spots, such as log piles, stones or nice south-facing ground early in the day (before it gets too warm and the reptiles move off to forage) and see if you can spot one before it spots you!

Grass snake

The one species I have encountered around Grantham is the grass snake, this is a non-venomous species which is often found associated with water where it hunts amphibians and small fish. One individual I have seen in the Grantham area was along Grantham Canal on the approach to Denton Reservoir and most recently another along a footpath which passes through Croxton Park but I would not be surprised if it were also present within the town of Grantham itself. It is quite an adaptable species and can often be found in gardens, especially if you have a pond. If you do see one, you have no reason to fear it although its main defence mechanism is to secrete an awful smelling substance which you will be able to smell on your hands for a good while after so please don’t touch! They also do a rather disturbing (and in my opinion overacted) job of playing dead, only uncoiling and moving away when they are sure the danger has passed.

The most characteristic feature of a grass snake is the yellow patches on its neck. It could be confused with the adder, but lacks the zig-zag pattern on the back as well as the red eyes. The only other species you may encounter which looks similar is the slow worm but this is a smaller creature (actually a legless lizard rather than a snake) which is a brown/gold colour. This page has some great pointers to help you identify a grass snake.

Common lizard

The common lizard is another species which may occur in the Grantham area although I do not know of any confirmed sightings since 1979. This is the only lizard you are likely to encounter in this part of the country and is therefore difficult to mistake for anything else! They are small and often shy creatures whose presence is most often only registered as a rustle in the undergrowth as they scurry out of sight. They are quite a common species in some parts of the country and can certainly be found in north Nottinghamshire around the Sherwood Forest area.

Slow worm

The slow worms is actually a legless lizard – this website on Rushcliffe Wildlife suggests they are present in small colonies only a few miles to the north of Grantham. In some parts of the country they are very common with strongholds in the west country where they are regularly encountered in gardens, most often when sheltering under rocks or logs, and are a welcome addition to the pest-control brigade, feeding on small invertebrate prey including small slugs.

Adder

The final species which could possibly be encountered in the vicinity of Grantham is the adder – our only poisonous snake. These have been recorded historically but not for almost 40 years now – the last record relates to Salter’s Ford Valley from 1979 according to the data search in this document which I turned up through a quick google search. The habitat typical of adders includes open heathland and moorland as well as rough countryside associated with forest edges. Due to the intensity of agriculture around Grantham, these populations are likely to be isolated and decreases in the availability of habitat in the last 40 years may well have resulted in the population dying out. There is a possibility that they may persist in some of the more isolated locations out to the south of the town towards Stamford.

They will bite if harassed (or trodden on) so do take care if you see anything which you suspect may be an adder. However they will only do so under provocation and in self defense – they will not attack people without good reason! Reports of adders along canals and waterways such as Grantham Canal are almost always a mid-identification of a harmless grass snake which has a great affinity for water where it will swim to hunt. More details on identification can be found here.

The other native species – smooth snake and sand lizard – are very specific in their habitat requirements and would not be found in or around Grantham.

I hope this quick guide is useful and don’t forget to record any sightings of reptiles or amphibians in the Grantham area on the Record Pool.

If you’re looking for reptile surveys in and around Grantham and the Midlands in general, check out Landscape Science Consultancy’s website here!

Grantham Ecology

The wildlife of a small market town…

2017 Retrospective – The Rest!

Reptiles in Grantham