Amphibians of Worcestershire and Beyond

A talk from Alan Shepherd, Principal Ecologist of Worcestershire Wildlife Consultancy.

Thursday 2nd January 2014.

Sadly, amphibians in the UK are declining in numbers. Alan Shepherd explained that this is largely due to loss of suitable habitat, but there are also prevalent diseases, some of which have been introduced by non-British species, brought in by humans.

In certain areas however, there are still plenty of amphibians inhabiting our ponds. The common frog can still be found in most places, though it is not as common as it used to be. We are all familiar with their spawn and tadpoles; only a tiny percentage of these survive, as almost everything else eats them. The tree frog is probably extinct in Worcestershire now (there were some in the Wyre Forest up to 3 years ago). The common toad is an explosive breeder, laying its eggs in long strings, which are not eaten by fish, because they are toxic. Otters and mink have the knack of skinning the adult toads to avoid the poisons. Natterjack toads live in a few specialised UK sites, but none locally. There are three kinds of newt in the UK: smooth, palmate and great crested, and we were shown the detailed differences between the three. We are lucky to have many great cresteds in Worcestershire, and they are protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Male Palmate Newt © Rosemary Winnall

How can we help our amphibians? We can refrain from dumping our rubbish in or near ponds and streams.  We can take more care over what we pour down the drains. We can dig and maintain ponds in our parks and gardens. Even a small one would soon be inhabited.

The next Malvern Group meeting will be held at the Lyttelton Rooms at 7.30 pm on February 6^th. Rob Allen will talk about South Worcestershire Reserves, including Hollybed Farm Meadows.

Alison, Malvern Local Group

Froggie goes a-courtin'

One of the more spectacular events of this month is the mating of common toads and frogs in shallow ponds around the area. It's something that volunteers might like to look out for on work days or everyone may want to watch for when they're out and about in wet areas.

Mating toads at Wilden

I was lucky enough to witness common toads mating in the North Pond at Wilden Marsh last year.  http://mike585.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/wilden-marsh-march-in-hoo-wood-and-wilden-marsh-nature-reserve-part-2/

Mike, Wilden

PS If you're lucky enough to come across a toad crossing, you can help the toads from getting run over by registering it with Froglife and helping the toads to cross the road!  http://www.froglife.org/toadsonroads/

 

Feckenham Update

We have been busy at Feckenham over the past couple of weeks; well our contractors have!

We now have our rejuvenated dragonfly ponds in front of the Alders hide and the dipping platform. Our contractor came in a couple of weeks ago and has done a great job in deepening and enlarging our existing overgrown ponds. This work was long overdue. They have filled up well and on our Dragonfly/Damselfly walk on Saturday 15th August we were able to see southern hawker, common darter, azure and blue tailed in good numbers. The common darter were laying so hopefully this bodes well for the future. We have a small amount of clearance work to do around the dipping platform but when this is done it will be ready for educational visits to pond dip.

We've also had our two main meadows cut and by the time you read this the hay will be off site. This year's dry weather has helped enormously and made the ground dry enough to get a light weight tractor on site. We have left wide margins and some large flowering patches for late butterflies; there are currently masses of common blue about which will we hope lay on the vetch.

We had two visits from the Roving Volunteers who worked very hard as they always do to cut and rake off the cowslip patch. This will enable better growth next Spring than this year as we were unable to cut last summer. We will be looking for brown hairstreak over the next few weeks to try to establish an 'assembly tree' and also hopefully to see females on the blackthorn.

One of our visitors spotted a peregrine flying over the reserve recently and our kingfisher is a regular visitor.

We found this young toad. Interesting colour, I have never seen one this colour before. If anyone knows about pale coloured toads, I'd be interested to hear your comments.

Anyone wishing to visit the reserve is reminded that there is no parking on Moors Lane. We only have access rights for management. So, please park in the village or contact the Warden Paul Meers on 07899 806425 for special permission to park in the management area. Also, a polite reminder to photographers, please do not put perches in the main pool bank. Access to the pool area is not permitted.

Till the next time!

Paul, Feckenham Wylde Moor