This year, London Amphibian and Reptile Group have been working with the Friends of Hampton Heath in the borough of Richmond-Upon-Thames to carry out monitoring of amphibian and reptile populations.

We surveyed two ponds on the neighbouring driving range and golf course, recording over 40 smooth newts in one night, and capturing a spangled diving beetle, a red-listed species and a first record for the borough.

We have also helped to initiate a long-term project to monitor and better understand the common lizard population at the heath. It was feared following a series of fires last year that the once infrequently sighted lizards may not have survived, however so far via the joint monitoring effort in 2023, common lizards have been regularly recorded across all areas of the heath, indicating the presence of a healthy and resilient metapopulation.

With thanks to Art Gelling and the Friends of Hampton Heath, keep up the good work!

A small, dedicated group of local residents continue to work tirelessly to rescue huge numbers of trapped toads and smooth newts at Chiswick Business Park. During the spring migration, toads and newts face an obstacle course of drains and underground car parks on their way to their breeding pond in the centre of the site, however following the main breeding season, many animals (including the occasional stag beetle!) continue to become entrapped in the numerous drains around the site.

This year to date, over 100 toads and 450 newts have been rescued. London ARG has supported the volunteers with a donation of equipment (buckets and nets), helped to measure gully pots and engaged with the business park management to gain approval for the installation of amphibian gully-pot ladders later this year.

Special thanks to Sivi and Claire, and to Chiswick Business Park for their co-operation. If you would like to help out the volunteers at Chiswick Business Park, please contact us.

London Amphibian and Reptile Group have been working with the Friends of Grove Farm Local Nature Reserve in the London Borough of Ealing to monitor slow worm populations at the 8 hectare site, which is situated just opposite Sudbury Hill underground station.

We helped to provide and place artificial refugia around the site, and slow worms are now frequently encountered during surveys, and we are beginning to gain an insight into the size and distribution of the population. London ARG has also been providing habitat management advice for the group, and will be helping to create a new pond on site later this year.

Special thanks to Mike, Anna and the Friends of Grove Farm Local Nature Reserve.

The team at Kew Gardens were kind enough to host us this spring. We carried out bottle trapping at four different ponds, in the hope of rediscovering a great population which was introduced in the year 2000 and last recorded over 10 years ago.

Although we were not fortunate enough to find any great crested newts this year, we remain hopeful in the outcome of further surveys in 2024, and we were blessed with a fantastic turnout from the smooth newts and common toads.

Many thanks to Ruth, Aneel, Louie and the rest of the team at Kew.