Welcome to Derbyshire Amphibian and Reptile Group we cover the whole of Derbyshire including part of the Peak District National Park.
Our group aims to promote the study and conservation of the amphibians and reptiles of Derbyshire and their habitats. We achieve this by:
We hope our website will help you to find the information you are looking for, but if you still have a query, please contact us and we will do our best to help.
Derbyshire ARG always welcome new members to the group, please email us on derbyshirearg@gmail.com to join. There is a membership subscription of £5 per year, though that is reviewed at every AGM..
We are very grateful for any records of amphibians and reptiles in your local area that you can pass to us as it helps in mapping the distribution of species and protecting their known habitats. Either contact us directly or use the Record a sighting tab on this website.
The group is run by a committee which is elected at the AGM each year. For 2024 - 2025 the committee elected at the AGM on 13th January 2024 are:
Chair - Kelvin Lawrence, Vice Chair - Christian Murray-Leslie, Secretary - Chris Monk, Treasurer - Jayne Thompson
Committee members - Garry Dorrell, Richard Fenn Griffin, Chris Hallam, James Longley, Sheila Stubbs and Ben Wyke
Kelvin Lawrence is also the Derbyshire Toad Crossings Co-ordinator for the Group & for Froglife
See a previous newsletters here
January_2021_DARG_newsletter_31.pdf
August_2020_DerbyshireARG_newsletter.pdf
February_2020_DARG_Events_newsletter.pdf
DARG_April_2019_newsletter.pdf
DARG_January_2019_newsletter.pdf
Derbyshire ARG data policy
DARG_data_protection_policy_November_2018.pdf
With the news that the Derbyshire Woodland Festival in late September will not now go ahead all our public engagement events across Derbyshire this summer have been cancelled due to the restrictions around the coronavirus pandemic. At the present time all other group activities such as surveys are suspended until such time as restrictions are amended and group gatherings of people in the open are allowed.
Derbyshire ARG
Toads on Roads: Change to Coronavirus Guidance
Further to our recent communication regarding toad patrolling during the Coronavirus emergency, there has been a change in government advice to restrict all but essential movement. The Group no longer feels we can continue with toad patrols whilst this restriction is in place, so we are instructing that this activity should cease with immediate effect.
Thanks to all for your support, and we hope to be back rescuing toads again next spring.
For more information please see https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
Take care and stay safe,
Kelvin Lawrence
Chair and Toad Crossings Coordinator, Derbyshire Amphibian & Reptile Group
& Derbyshire Area Coordinator for Froglife
23rd March 2020
Derbyshire ARG -Coronavirus Memorandum
As a group we have always, and will always, put the health, safety and welfare of people involved or affected by our activities first, ahead of any other considerations.
We are at present in the busy toad migration season, and most of our toad patrols are currently active or standing by. It is the group's considered opinion that it is possible for volunteers to comply with current government advice regarding social distancing whilst on toad patrol, and so we are continuing to rescue toads and other amphibians from road traffic, although no-one should feel obligated to do so. Please do not attend a patrol if you are in isolation or are feeling unwell or if you fall in the high-risk groups (over 70 years old or have pre-existing health problems).
Individuals should regularly review government advice (see link below) and assess their own vulnerability before they choose to go out on toad patrol. Please keep up to date as government advice is likely to change before the toad patrols have finished. Please also continue to follow all our guidelines, policies and procedures, and contact your coordinator if you have any questions.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-on-social-distancing-and-forvulnerable-people/guidance-on-social-distancing-for-everyone-in-the-uk-and-protecting-olderpeople-and-vulnerable-adults
The Group will take a view on participation in future events and activities in due course. It is likely that some public events that the Group have planned to attend will be cancelled. We may be able to run some surveys this spring and summer.
Take care and stay safe,
Kelvin Lawrence
Chair and Toad Crossings Coordinator, Derbyshire Amphibian & Reptile Group
& Derbyshire Area Coordinator for Froglife
17th March 2020
Together with the village environment group we ran a working party to help remove a garden escape from the Middle Lane pond in Brassington. The pond, which has 3 rare water plants as well as water shrew, frog and smooth newt, was being taken over by vigorous growth of a variegated form of Glyceria maxima. After a previous working party by the village group, we joined them to try and remove as much of the plant and its roots as possible. Although there will be regrowth especially along the walled edge where it was almost impossible to remove the roots, it will have greatly reduced the density of this plant in the coming year. A few early frogs were found in the pond but spawning still hasn't happened yet in the Peak District.
Work has started today with a contractor to clear out the Typha dominated dewpond at Hoe Grange Farm. The pond that supports great crested & smooth newts, common toad and common frog was last cleaned out in the 1980s but for the last decade has been choked with Typha and is badly silted. Derbyshire ARG has had a couple of back-breaking working parties in the decade and managed to clear small areas around the edge to keep some open water but the dense growth in the centre remained and rapidly covers the cleared areas. With support from ARG UK 100% fund we have employed an experienced dewpond maintenance and restoration contractor who has restored many dewponds in the nearby Peak District National Park to clear the whole pond. In addition we are facilitating the clearance of another large depond that has completely silted up on a neighbouring farm and hopefully the restoration of another nearby dewpond that has been dry for over 40 years.
We will be running pond surveys across the National Forest area in southern Derbyshire. Details to be confirmed
We will be running a series of reptile surveys across the year at several sites.
We have refugia (cover object) surveys out at Hassop near Bakewell, Linacre Reservoirs near Chesterfield and Hardwick Hall near Doe Lea. Hassop has been running for 10 years and is monitoring slow-worms and common lizard. We were asked to help set up refugia surveys at Linacre by Severn Trent Water's Ranger where we have monitored grass snakes and checked on common lizard by visual surveys at a separate location on the site. At Hardwick we have assisted the National Trust Rangers in setting up a refugia survey this year to help assess the grass snake population.
In addition we are carrying out visual transect surveys at the Peak District National Park Authority's North Lees Estate to determine the status of Common Lizard across this large estate. There is a mixture of habitats there including the gritstone edges and dry stone walls, dwarf shrub heath, large areas of bracken domination, acid grassland fields, woodland plantations and some wetland and flushes.
As in previous years we will be running a programme of torchlight surveys of dewponds across the White Peak area of the Peak District National Park These include checking on ponds that have been restored by the PeaK District National Park Authority through earlier grant funded programmes or their current Farming in Protected Landscape Scheme. The aim is to assess the success of restoring ponds for the newts particularly the great crested newt to colonise restored ponds and to monitor continued amphibian presence in suite of ponds that are surveyed every year.
A few ponds may be bottle trapped and we are waiting to hear from the Freshwater Habitats Trust whether they will be running a tenth year of their PondNet Great Crested Newt eDNA Project. There are two sites in Derbyshire we take the water samples for them, one near Hartington in the Peak District National Park and one near North Wingfield in NE Derbyshire.
The programme of surveys is still to be confirmed but if interested in taking part please contact us at derbyshirearg@gmail.com
Part of a programme of free environmental walks organised by Groundwork Five Counties for the National Forest Company
This year Derbyshire ARG will be leading the pond walk at New Lount Nature Reserve in the Leicestershire part of the National Forest. The walk will last around 2 hours and will look at the ponds amd amphibians to be found at the nature reserve.The reserve is known to be a good site for amphibians and also attracts grass snakes
Book to attend at environment@groundworknottingham.org.uk or by text to 07801 122494
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Event organised by the Pleasley Pit Nature Study Group, held by the old engine house at the entrance to Pleasley Pit Country Park and Local Nature Reserve
We will be having a stand at the event which runs from 10.00am to 4.00pm.
The Country Park was created on the site of the former Pleasley Colliery and is one of the best examples of landscape restoration with nature conservation. There is a mixture of habitats with some areas being underlaid by slightly acidic mining spoil whilst other areas have the underlying Magnesian Limestone especially noticeable on the disused railway cuttings. The site is well known for grass snakes and also for toads, frogs and smooth newts in and around the several ponds on site.
We will be attending a bioblitz organised by National Trust Rangers at Severn Trent Water's Staunton Harold Reservoir on Thursday 30th and Friday 31st May. The event will run between 10.00am and 2.00pm each day. We will be organising a stand with information about our native amphibians and reptiles, there will also be wildlife walks and talks on both days.
The entrance to the Reservoir is signposted off the B587 road just south of Melbourne, follow the signs on Calke Road to the car park
For Toad Crossings and to contact our Derbyshire Toad Crossings Co-ordinator please email derbyshirearg.toads@gmail.com
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