We held our 2023 AGM on Tuesday 7th March and welcomed 15 members to hear about what the group has been doing and to elect its 2023/24 committee. Minutes have been emailed to all members, and the election results were as follows:

On the 24th March we had our 2021 virtual AGM, and we are very pleased to announce that we have elected our 2021/22 committee and have welcomed a new committee member to the group, bringing our committee to a total of 9 people. 

Hello everyone,

On behalf of the BBCARG, I hope that you are all well and getting on okay after this year; it has been a strange one for the group - and probably for many of the groups you interact with – as we have not been able to get out and about doing surveying, habitat management or running and attending events. That said, we are hopeful that next year we will be able to do more and already have a few things in the pipeline to work on and invite you to.

This spring, we did not send out requests for membership renewal as we expected that we would not be able to run events as usual. Something we have been working on since then is our very own ARGWEB platform, which will allow us to manage our members and help you manage your membership with us via a log-in portal. Once we have this set-up and working we will be emailing everyone and posting on here with more information, and if you would like to renew or start a membership with us you will be able to do so then.

Member or not, I hope you enjoy our newsletter put together by the committee. Please note that from next year, only our paying members will be receiving our newsletters and will have better access to events, training and updates from us - so if you would like to stay in the loop make sure to join again when we send out the details. Stay safe, and we hope to see you soon. 

View our November 2020 Newsletter here.

This time of year everyone gets quite excited about the near arrival of our beloved frogs and toads as they move to ponds and start breeding. Many toad patrols are active and well, helping common toads move safely to their breeding ponds. 

If you have ponds and wetlands near you, or some amphibians have taken up refuge somewhere nearby - it is very useful to be able to understand what it is that you've found so that you can then report your findings to us! The more information we have about our frogs and toads, the better we can act to protect and preserve them.

As a result, we've put together some guidance to help you figure out whether you have fabulous frogs or tremendous toads in your local area. The two species are quite distinct when you know what you're looking for, so hopefully this will help.

So what are frogs and toads?

• Find out about common toads (Bufo bufo) - information page and video. Find out what they sound like here.
• Find out about common frogs (Rana temporaria) - information page and video. Find out what they sound like here.
• What do frogs and toads look like? ID Guide.
• But what about in real life? Photos of frogs and toads.
• What about spawn? Spawn FAQs can be found here. 

If you do find frogs, toads or spawn near you - make sure you report it via the RecordPool portal on our website - find it under the 'Record A Sighting' tab.

Note - We 100% encourage people to get out an about looking for our wonderful amphibians, but care is needed. Make sure you're aware of how to keep them safe from harm, make sure you're up to date on amphibian disease. We do not recommend that anyone handle any animals unless it is absolutely necessary. 

After our 'Evening of Herpetology' event, we held our Annual General Meeting (AGM).

During this we reviewed our year, what progress we had made, the successes we had achieved, and we also discussed what we have planned for the upcoming year. 

We also elected our new committee, which is as follows:

Chair - Amber Hopgood

Secretary - Katy Perry

Treasurer - Hannah Lewis

Records Officer - Charlene Jones

Website and Social Media Officer - Amber Hopgood

Training and Events Officer - Paul Wilkinson

Newsletter Editor - Tasha Cain

Black Country Project Officer - Piotr Koryl

Birmingham Project Officer - Charlene Jones

Records Assistant/Committee member - Shannon McCallion