DARN Dispatches 9 October 2021

A big THANK YOU to Tina, Warren, Cathy, Paul, Pete G, Pete W and friends at HIWARG for your continued support with surveys, habitat management and advice.

I know I say this every time but DARN does continue to expand its activities with more surveyors, more transects, more sightings. So, thank you to everyone for continuing to make DARN so successful!

Habitat management season has just started and we have completed two tasks in Ringwood Forest with more planned here and in Hurn Forest and on other sites.

Pond surveys will be a new feature for next year and we will also be looking for non-native herp species in the county.

The SliC surveys – Slow-worms in Churchyards – are also continuing to expand in Dorset and there are also now 6 sites in the New Forest. Thank you to the New Forest Park Authority for their generous grant to fund these.

David, our foreign correspondent in Greece, continues to send us wonderful photos of sightings from his back garden and beyond. Thanks David. Keep them coming!

We held a face-to-face Committee Meeting last month and we will be having a zoom Committee Meeting next month. Thanks to Pete Gillatt for organising the zoom session.

Warren and Tina have been busy setting up more transects across Dorset with rare reptiles being found on many of them. Cathy and I have also set up transects on a wildlife friendly farm, a SANG, a Common, and we are planning visual surveys along disused railway tracks.

With Halloween approaching I was interested to read that ‘Eye of newt’ referred not to an amphibian but to a plant! Mustard seed. Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” describes a concoction that consists of:

“Eye of newt (mustard seed) and toe of frog (buttercup leaves),

Wool of bat (moss) and tongue of dog (hounds tooth),

Adder’s fork (violet), and blind-worm’s sting (knotweed),

Lizard’s leg (ivy), and howlet’s wing (garlic)

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

As usual, if you have any herp records (not plants), historic ones are fine as well especially as I have just found out how to add them to ARGWEB when there isn’t a grid reference, send them to me or add them to Casual Sightings on the DARN website: www.groups.arguk.org/darn  or on Record Pool: www.recordpool.org.uk or email the details to: sheiladyason2007@yahoo.co.uk

Also, if you are interested in becoming a DARN reptile surveyor, email me and we will arrange for ARGWEB and field survey training if it is needed and then you will be given access to our widespread transect sites.

I look forward to hearing from you

Keep safe!

Sheila Dyason

Chair of DARN

Conservation opportunities for everyone!

I am sure that many of you would have known David Tamarind as he had been herping in Dorset for many decades. He sadly passed away recently. He was collecting data on rare reptiles right up to the end even though mobility problems were slowing him down. He will be sadly missed.

DARN continues to expand its activities with more surveyors, more transects, more sightings. So, thank you to everyone for continuing to make DARN so successful!

The SliC surveys – Slow-worms in Churchyards – are also continuing to expand and we soon hope to have sites across Dorset. Slow-worms have been found in all the Dorset burial ground sites that we are surveying and Warren Port and Tina-Louise Gower have also found a Grass Snake and a Great Crested Newt at one churchyard which was particularly exciting. If you know of other churchyards that might like to participate then please let me know.

David, our foreign correspondent in Greece, continues to send us wonderful photos of sightings from his back garden and beyond. Thanks David. Keep them coming!

A zoom Committee meeting was held recently and plans for the future discussed.

Warren has reminded us that it was International Snake Day yesterday and he shared some photos of Dorset snakes to celebrate.

Thanks Warren!

As usual, if you have any records, historic ones are fine as well, add them to Casual Sightings on the DARN website: www.groups.arguk.org/darn  or on Record Pool: www.recordpool.org.uk or email the details to: sheiladyason2007@yahoo.co.uk

Also, if you are interested in becoming a DARN reptile surveyor, email me and we will arrange for ARGWEB and field survey training if it is needed and then you will be given access to our widespread transect sites and you can help us to record reptiles in Dorset.

I look forward to hearing from you

Keep safe!

Sheila Dyason

Chair of DARN

Conservation opportunities for everyone!

DARN Dispatches 7

Well, we’re in the middle of spring but it has been pretty nippy recently.

DARN continues to expand in all directions with more surveyors, more transects, more sightings. So, thank you to everyone who is helping to make DARN so successful!

HIWARG has been a good friendly neighbour and helped us with some ARGWEB and field survey training.

We have new transects in North Dorset with more to follow and one on an MOD site which is particularly exciting.

The SliC surveys – Slow-worms in Churchyards – are also continuing to expand with sites in Dorset, Hants, Berks and soon in Wilts as well. So far Slow-worms have been found in more than 25% of the sites and in Dorset in more than 70% of the churchyards. If you know of other churchyards that might like to participate then please let me know.

David, our foreign correspondent in Greece, continues to send us wonderful photos of sightings from his back garden and beyond. Thanks David. Keep them coming!

A BBQ is being planned for DARN surveyors for the end of the season. More details next time.

As you probably know we have registered Dorset Amphibian and Reptile Network (DARN) with #easyfundraising, which means over 4,000 shops and sites will now donate to us for FREE every time we use #easyfundraising to shop with them.

These donations will help SO MUCH, so please sign up to support us – it is completely FREE and does not take long.

EASYFUNDRAISING.ORG.UK

You shop. Dorset Amphibian and Reptile Network (DARN) gets money. For free.

Help us when you shop with 4,300 shops & sites. Join now.

So far more than £30 has been raised through EasyFundRaising which is brilliant! Thanks everyone – that will fund another reptile transect.

As usual, if you have any records, historic ones are fine as well, add them to Casual Sightings on the DARN website: www.groups.arguk.org/darn  or on Record Pool: www.recordpool.org.uk or email the details to: sheiladyason2007@yahoo.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you

And I eagerly anticipate even more great things for DARN in 2021

Keep safe!

Sheila Dyason

Chair of DARN

Conservation opportunities for everyone!

DARN Dispatches 6

Well, spring is nearly here and there have been some fantastic Adder and Common Lizard sightings already.

Don’t forget to add your sightings to ARGWEB or Record Pool.

www.recordpool.org.uk

Frog spawn can be added as well. There were 70+ clumps at Ringwood Forest which was more than twice as much as last year. Five clumps in my little garden ponds and Palmate Newts.

Toad patrols were difficult to carry out this year unless there was one locally.

Unfortunately, we only managed one habitat management session but we still made an impact and thanks to Pete Gillatt (HIWARG) there is now a reptile transect set up in Hurn Forest as well.

The SliC Project – Slow-worms In Churchyards - now has 23 transects set up and 12 waiting to be set up so let’s hope for a bumper crop of Slow-worms.

The Zoom Herp Workers Meeting was a great success and there was even a talk on Slow-worms by Allyson Hawkins (HIWARG). The ARG UK AGM was the following week and the local ARGS had the opportunity to report on their Group’s activities. So yes, I gave an update on the SliC project and some craft activities I have been developing for a ‘Slow-worms are Sensational’ pack. I had permission to develop this from the ‘Adders are Amazing’ pack.

The other exciting new is that I have just been appointed as an Administrator for ARG UK on a part-time temporary contract to help with projects etc.

We’ve registered Dorset Amphibian and Reptile Network (DARN) with #easyfundraising, which means over 4,000 shops and sites will now donate to us for FREE every time we use #easyfundraising to shop with them.

These donations will help SO MUCH, so please sign up to support us – it’s completely FREE and doesn’t take long.

EASYFUNDRAISING.ORG.UK

You shop. Dorset Amphibian and Reptile Network (DARN) gets money. For free.

Help us when you shop with 4,300 shops & sites. Join now.

Hopefully in a few weeks, as the lockdown gradually eases, we will be able to move around the county a bit more, set up some more transects and get surveying.

As usual, if you have any records, historic ones are fine as well, add them to Casual Sightings on the DARN website: www.groups.arguk.org/darn  or on Record Pool: www.recordpool.org.uk or email the details to: sheiladyason2007@yahoo.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you

And I eagerly anticipate great things for DARN in 2021

Keep safe!

Sheila Dyason

Chair of DARN

Conservation opportunities for everyone!

DARN Dispatches 5

A big thank you to everyone who has helped to makes DARN’s first year so successful despite the ongoing Coronavirus issues. Also, a special thank you to our friends at HIWARG (Hampshire and Isle of Wight Amphibian and Reptile Group) who continue to be so supportive of all we are trying to achieve.

And what a lot we have achieved!!!

*We have 10 transects set up on 3 major rare reptile sites

*We have 3 transects set up to survey for widespread reptile species and more are being  

  planned

*We have collected Frog, Toad and Newt data from numerous ponds across the county

*The SliC (Slow-worms in Churchyards) Project now has transects set up in 20 churchyards

  and burial grounds and we have permission to set up 10 more.

*Our membership continues to steadily increase

*Habitat management has been carried out to remove Pine and Birch from heather banks and

  verges

There are more habitat management sessions planned with the next one is at Hurn Forest on Sunday 3^rd January 2021. The details are on the Events page. So if you would like to come along and help to improve the habitat for reptiles you will find a warm welcome. Just make sure that your DARN membership is up to date and for insurance purposes, that you have completed the Volunteer Worker’s Agreement (VWA). The session will run from 10 – 1 but you can leave at any time. To join us just click ‘going’ on the Events page. It will be a socially distanced event in accordance with the latest Government guidelines and it will be a joint event with HIWARG members.

If you know of any areas that would benefit from some extra habitat management then let me know. Also, if you know of other churchyards, burial grounds or other areas where a reptile  transect could be set up let me know.

So, if you have some spare time, there are plenty of opportunities to join in and help conserve Dorset’s amphibians and reptiles; meet other volunteers and see some stunning scenery and wildlife.

If you have any records, historic ones are fine as well, add them to Casual Sightings on the DARN website: www.groups.arguk.org/darn  or on Record Pool: www.recordpool.org.uk or email the details to: sheiladyason2007@yahoo.co.uk

If you have any ideas for activities or for developing the Group just email me.

I look forward to hearing from you

And I eagerly anticipate great things for 2021

Keep safe!

Sheila Dyason

Chair of DARN

Conservation opportunities for everyone!