I am sure everyone is getting tired of all this rain and feeling rather depressed by it all.

However, every cloud can have a silver lining.

Cloudy skies at this time of year tend to lead to milder nights, which with a bit of rain can lead to ideal conditions to see amphibians starting to return to ponds and other water bodies to breed.

Luckily I managed to build  2 small wildlife ponds in my garden about 4 years ago, and over time they have been populated by Smooth Newts and the odd Common Frog.

I can honestly say, it's something every avid wildlife conservationist/enthusiast should have in their garden.

On mild nights I usually go out in the garden with a good torch to see if there are any movements, and January is usually the month the Smooth Newts return to my ponds.

Tonight I have seen 5 Smooth Newts,3 male,2 female (last year my maximum count was 26 in April/May)

Other amphibians as well as newts can also be seen on mild nights in January, so keep your eyes out, and watch your steps in the dark as amphibians can travel quite a distance to return back to a breeding pond, which may mean crossing roads(Toad patrols coming soon) pavements or the garden path and lawn.

Keep those eyes peeled.

Some phone images from tonight's 'Amphibian garden watch'

Kevin .NottsARG Chair

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in some way with Nottinghamshire ARG this year. Whether it has been through surveying, committee work, spreading the word, donations through membership etc or by some other means that I am failing to mention, thank you.

I also would like to thank the Forestry England team(especially Amy Chandler) , the National Trust Team and the Newstead & Annesley CP team who have been extremely supportive of the group and have done habitat improvements to benefit our native reptile and amphibians.

We are also looking forward to working with other partners in 2024, NottsBAG, Notts City Council and NWT to name just a few.

We have some plans of action for the new year with Toad Patrols being the first focus of the year, but we really need more people involved as more and more areas are opening up to us that will benefit our local herpetofauna.

Volunteer organisations always find it tough to find dedicated people to spare their valuable time and we hope we can find more like minded people in the new year and if you know someone please ask them if they would like to get involved.

We aim to have the AGM sometime in January and we would be looking at an online Microsoft Teams or Zoom meeting, I will be in touch soon when a date is finalised.

For now though, thank you again for your support, and I wish you and your families, a very Merry Christmas.

Kevin

NottsARG Chair

After Saturdays rain, Sunday morning with its sunny intervals was the perfect conditions to walk my local area in Clipstone to see if any Common Lizards were out basking.

The first woodland edges were very productive with 5 adult Common Lizards and 4 juveniles seen.

Common Lizards have started giving birth and this is the perfect time to see them, edge habitat, or in heather, on leaf litter are good places to see them, even roadside verges.

Nottinghamshire is a good county to see Common Lizard, they are present most parks and nature reserves across Nottinghamshire.

I then moved onto to some roadside habitat, which again had Adult and juveniles present, brilliant news for the local Lizard population.

I spent just over 2 hours on my walk and managed approximately 20 plus Common Lizards, with juveniles in the 3 main areas I was checking.

As a bonus I managed to see a couple of baby Toads moving through the heather.

Here's some photo's from the morning.

NottsARG had a lovely morning reptile walk in Nottinghamshire today and the day started very well, as even before the group arrived we had spotted 3 Common Lizard, a good start indeed.

After everyone had arrived for the 9.30 walk, Steve(NottsARG committee) registered everyone into the event and discussed health and safety and the risk assessment for the event.

Next, the Chair of NottsARG, Kevin Clarke explained a little about the mornings walk and what it would entail.

We set off on the first transect, showing the group what to look for and also how to survey using artificial refugia.

We were very lucky to find 3 species on the first transect Slow Worm's, Common Lizards and a young female Toad.

The second transect, we allowed the group to survey  while being observed and Common Lizard were seen as well as a single Slow Worm. 

The next 2 transects unfortunately didn't produce any reptiles, but the last transect, which was lifted by 6 year old Solomon produced another Slow Worm.

We did catch a couple of the Slow Worm/Toad and Lizard (safely and wearing gloves) to enable such a large group to see the animals, after a few minutes they were safely put back where found.

All in all a fantastic morning.

Kevin Clarke

Chair NottsARG

and here's a lovely post from one of our NottsARG volunteers(Val Green).

Fantastic reptile survey walk this morning in Nottinghamshire - my first 

We saw our first slow worm within 10 minutes - certainly not the last.

I didn't check the final tally but I think it was 6 slow worms, 8 common lizards and a toad.

Here are a few photos that give a flavour of the morning 

I will also be posting photos and video clips on our Instagram page and Facebook page.

Note. The survey was fully licenced and permission obtained to share photos.

Val Green - NottsARG

With the amphibian season well and truly started, the toads and frogs have been and gone in places throughout Nottinghamshire.

However, the newts are just starting to become more active and if you are lucky, you may see them courting and laying eggs in your garden or local ponds.

The site chosen holds all four verified Nottinghamshire amphibians which made for a great night of surveying.

Three committee members(under license) led two groups of volunteers through the night and morning on the survey sessions.

The groups started with a safety brief followed by disinfecting footwear and equipment.

After the technical bits were  out the way the group learned how to survey using a torch, and learning to identify the species they came across in their torch beam.

A few newts were caught safely to allow for closer identification out of water for the trainees, this would allow some of the team to see the animals up close without struggling to identify the animals at distance in the water.

This was followed by learning how to look for and ID newt eggs that had been laid, and with careful looking we found both newt species eggs( that are present)  in the water.

After finding a suitable site we then discussed the use of, and deployed bottle traps(using the well versed guidelines and techniques for this kind of survey).

After bottle traps were deployed and carefully counted out, we then carried on our visual surveys of the areas, finishing our evening survey at approximately 12.30am.

The following morning the groups met at 6:15am to check and collect the bottle traps(making sure all were counted in that were put out) ,out of the 30 bottles we deployed we caught 2 male smooth newts.

The total amphibians seen on our survey were:-

30 Male Toads

1 1st year juvenile Toad

3 Male Frog

5 Male Great Crested Newt

2 Female Great Crested Newt

1 Juvenile Great Crested Newt

11 Male Smooth Newts

7 Female Smooth Newts

2 Male Smooth Newt caught in bottle traps

Smooth newt eggs and GCN eggs on both leaves and egg strips

All in all a fantastic session, with everyone coming away with some good Amphibian knowledge.

If you wish to join us on surveys like this then please become a member and email us at 

nottsarg@hotmail.com

Maiya Evans

NottsARG Amphibian's Officer

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