Reptile surveys

Today I've been reptile surveying with the Wildlife Trust at a few sites in South Wales. Had a brilliant day in the sunshine, laying and checking artificial refugia and discovering all kinds of wildlife. Although we only found one reptile!

First off we went to the Dow Corning nature reserve in Barry. We checked and laid about 20 artificial refugia - squares of corrugated roofing material (Onduline) like this:

Reptiles can't regulate their own body temperature, so need to use the environment to warm up and cool down. In the mornings they need to bask in warm places to get enough energy to move around. The Onduline squares are warmer than the surrounding vegetation so are attractive to reptiles, making them ideal places to look for them.

No success with reptiles yet, but we found some beautiful field vole nests under our refugia. Here's one of them:

We also saw and heard loads of birds including Cetti's warbler, reed warbler, whitethroat, great crested grebe, greenfinch, chiff chaff and coot. I think I've finally got the Cetti's warbler song in my head now! We saw some butterflies too, buff-tailed bumblebees and lots of tadpoles.

At our second site, in Caerphilly, we checked and laid some more refugia. Again no reptiles, but we did find toads hiding under the refugia. One of the highlights was a stoat's nest. I searched for dormouse-nibbled hazelnuts but all I found were those eaten by woodmice. Also incredibly cute! Note the tooth marks perpendicular to the edge of the hole. If a dormouse had eaten them the hole would be neater, with tooth marks parallel to the edge.

At the final site in Margam we found a female slow-worm under the first refuge. Success! Long, slender and beautifully marked, she slithered away quite quickly for a slow-worm - but not before I could take this picture:

We found lots of otter spraint alongside the ditches, full of bones and scales. There was abundant ladysmock, the larval food plant of the orange tip butterfly. We saw a few adults too. As well as many field vole nests we also managed to see a couple of voles themselves, with their stubby tails and rich brown fur.

Despite a whole day's surveying, we only found one reptile - but she was certainly worth it, along with the birds, mammals and insects we were lucky to see. Beats a day in the office. If I had one.