Frog by Night

A few weeks ago I mentioned spotting a Common Frog in my back yard, well it was the Owl that drew my attention to it first. Well I film her and I have finally got the film sorted out and here it is.

A female Common Frog Rana temporaria, at night and hopping away.

The Crucifix Beetle

There were two wildlife stories that I read about yesterday that have real relevance to my local countryside and woodland. The first was that the National Trust have rediscovered the Crucifix Beetle in Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire after an absence of more than fifty years. Now I know that is a couple of hundred kilometres from me here, (as I am aware that the geographers among you will swiftly point out). But last year I had seen this same Beetle in Chopwell wood. However, while I knew it was rare, I had not realised that it is one of the Rarest Beetles in the UK.

This discovery shows just how important our little wood is to wildlife, diversity and habitat. The other story is about another rare creature that does live in the local woods. While I may have seen one when I first moved here and started exploring the woods, it was so brief a glimpse of an Adder that I could not be sure. However, when talking to the Ranger, I discovered that it was in the location of a known but elusive colony.

Anyway, The Herpelogical Conservation Trust are asking for people to send in details of sightings of Adders so that a conservation plan can be drawn up.

A link to The Herpelogical Conservation Trust web site

Photo Credit; my thanks to F Koehler for the picture.

Welcome to the Grass Snake Hotel

With any conservation project the amount of work that can be completed is directly proportional to the hard work and dedication of the volunteers. The building of one Snake Hibernacula was ambitious to build two was going to be difficult but achievable. Therefore in planning what work was needed to be done, two days were allocated to this project.

One of the greatest difficulties was always likely to be that the ground where the pits needed to be dug. As this is a woodland area, that meant digging through tree roots, and anyone who has done any gardening near trees, will know, this is never easy. However, we are blessed with a light sandy soil down by the river, therefore digging would not be as bad as it could be. Thus a balance was there and fortunately on the day the unseasonably good weather held up making the work easier to carry out. While it was still hard work as more than one tonne of soil had to be dug out of each pit, the pits were quickly created.

The pits are made two meters by two meters and about forty centimetres deep, with a slope to wards the south. That way they can drain and will stop them becoming frost pockets. These pits are then filled with logs that are at least twenty centimetres across and laid crossways on two layers. This creates an area of air that is warmer than the ambient air temperature, and even if this log filled pit becomes water logged, that water will not lead to the air within the hibernacula freezing, therefore not harming or killing the snakes inside.



Those logs bring the pit back up to the ground level; at this point the actual accommodation is constructed. This is made up of smaller branches, from ten centimetres down to twigs, stacked so they are in an east west orientation. The orientation again is important so that at sunrise in particular, and less so at sunset, the sun warms the branches at the entrances so that the air temperature is kept higher than the ambient air temperature and frost-free. This stack is built up so that its about eighty centimetres from the ground. All the spaces in this pile are there so that the snakes can find cosy places to sleep out the winter free from predation or disturbance.




Then an insulation layer is put on the logs. While turf would be ideal, as Chopwell wood doesn’t have great swathes of grass anywhere, we used bracken something we do have lots of. Often it is a matter of making minor adjustments and using the materials available, rather than not doing something because you don’t have what’s ideal. Therefore with the logs insulated the soil from the pits is used to cover the hibernacula, leaving the East and West sides open.



The volunteers worked their socks off, and two hibernaculums were completed in a day rather than the two days expected. Friends of Chopwell Wood, and the Durham Biodiversity Action, were really lucky to have had such hardworking and dedicated volunteers. Thanks folks, and I am sure that the Grass snakes will send their thanks too.

All we need to do now is find the tenants!
So to all you grass snakes out there, free accommodation.
(We don’t mind if the Grass Snakes are Squatters either)
Beautiful Location

Enhancing Biodiversity

This weekend the Mouse is going to be busy helping to build not one, but two, Grass Snake Hibernacula in the wood. While climate change may be bringing new species further north, we are at the northern limit of the normal range for Grass Snakes. Unfortunately there has been a decline in the population in recent years due mainly to a loss of habitat. All those overly tidy gardens, spraying of herbicide and modern agricultural practices have all contributed to this. However along the Derwent River, there is an opportunity to reverse this decline by enhancing the habitat for the Grass snake.

Many of the elements are already there including the snakes, it is just a matter of managing the area so that it enables these reptiles to maintain a strong belly hold.

The area that the Grass Snake hotels are to be built in has already had some coppicing work done, this opens the area up to the sunlight and will provide the basking areas the snakes need so that they can raise there temperatures, being cold blooded this is vital to their survival. The fact that the area where the Hibernacula are to be constructed is an area that has to be coppiced regularly is all part of the careful planning and long term viability of the project. Further, because of the need to create piles of composting vegetation so that the snakes can breed and nest, also helps deal with another problem of the highly invasive Himalayan Balsam. This introduced species has created a large colony that has been smothering out all other plants. By utilising these plants as the material to create the compost heaps has the effect of benefiting the Grass Snakes as well as dealing with the invader.

Therefore, while this work will directly benefit the Grass Snakes, it will also help the native plants to re-establish themselves and benefit many other forms of Fauna and Flora too.

It will not be until next year that we will know if there are any snakes using the hotel, but there are snakes in the area, not just grass snakes but the even more endangered adder as well. All this work could benefit tens of species in the long term, enhancing the ecology of the wood and the river Derwent.



There was an article in the local paper today about the project too, and I understand that local TV will be covering it as well. Fortunately the mouse was in hibernation for this.

Dealing with damage and creating something special

While I am a strong believer in allowing open access to the countryside, I also realise that there are some people who don’t care about the environment and come into the natural environment set on causing damage. The photograph of this damaged tree is just one example of the damage that irresponsible people do.

Today, the Mouse and the Chair had to complete the cementing in of the rocks in the Coal Tubs. This was becoming urgent as already the mindless ones were trying to destroy the work already done. Some of the content of the tubs, not concreted in, had been removed and the rocks used as projectiles to attempt to damage the tubs and the work already done.

It would be all to easy to become despondent, but with a pragmatic attitude, we worked to complete the task and ensure that there is little that can be damaged. I personally have never understood the drive or motivation to destroy. I suppose that because it’s easier to destroy something than to create, it must provide the brainless some form of creative outlet.

With that task completed we only need to get our willing band of volunteers to join us to paint the tubs now. You are welcome to join us.

That done, the Chair and myself were not finished as we also had the job of dealing with the wildflower meadow.

As the British landscape is an artificial one, created by thousands of years of human intervention, the traditional wildflower meadow is a habitat that requires careful management. In the past, meadows would have been clearings created when trees were felled to provide hay and herbage for animals and livestock. Because there was no active inputs into the soil from manure, as would happen in a pasture meadow, and the grass and herbage are removed, the soil remains poor and denuded of nutrients. This makes the land poor for growing crops, but a perfect environment for the wild flowers, as the grasses are not able to take over.

Thus with the changes that have occurred in agricultural practice over the last fifty to sixty years, many of the traditional wildflowers have become scarce. By recreating a wildflower meadow, we ensure that the flowers exist as well as the insects and the reptiles and amphibians that feed on the insects. While the biodiversity is much grater than just that, it gives you an example of why these areas are so important.

But, as people no longer keep the odd pig, or a house cow, or even a goat or two, traditional meadows are no longer a part of the agricultural necessity. Thus managing them becomes more labour intensive. Thus the work falls to us volunteers to do the work.

Fortunately, the Friends’ have some good contacts and supporters and we got the woman who has the Alpacas in to cut the hay. But the real work is raking up and removing the hay. That is what the Mouse and the Chair did today.

The benefits to the wildlife were obvious right from the start as there were several common frogs Rana temporaria in the area and as the herbage was raked up they were hopping away to find cover. Also as the ground was cleared a large number of vole and mouse holes were revealed too.

While all of this was hard work, the benefits to the natural environment were obvious and while it is harder to create something worthwhile, that effort is justified.

The Intellectual and….

For my sins and since becoming involved with conservation in my local area, I sit on various committees. While it is the least favourite aspect of my duties, it does mean that I can have a positive input into the discussions regarding what is happening. However, I enjoy meeting with other people who share my passion for the local woods and the surrounding countryside. Last night for instance it was great to hear one of the local farmers talking with passion about seeing four of the red kites, quartering a neighbour’s field, as they were cutting corn. For me it was fascinating as he detailed behaviour that I have never observed myself but have only read of in books, the lucky chap.

Attending these meetings also have another advantage as it provides me the chance to take a regular route into my woods and see what is happening at various points where I have seen wildlife previously. Frequently I will see signs of activity and occasionally some of the wildlife its self. One of the other advantages of this is people will tell me of what they have seen too, and this all helps build up a picture of the vitality of the local habitats and the environment in general.

Last nights meeting was one of the better ones, as we covered a lot of ground and in a very positive manner. Further, the concusses of the people at the meeting was very much in favour of a much more conservationist approach to the work and activities in the woods. It is when we have everyone trying to find workable solutions to some of the problems that tackling the intellectual aspects of conservation can be so worthwhile.

Then today it was back to doing the practical. Rather than just do work on my beloved woods, I have started doing other conservation work as well. This helps me re-acquire skills, as much of the work will be the type of work that I have done before. Also it will allow me to discover the different approaches to solving similar problems, which other organisations use. Additionally by working on different habitats I get to see a wider range of wildlife.

For example today’s work was grassland management at a pond and wetlands site. It’s a nature reserve on a former quarry site that is rich in reptiles and amphibians. Cutting the grass and removing the sward and vegetation to keep the soil denuded of nutrients thus providing the perfect conditions for many wild flowers. This vegetative cover provides the habitat that voles, mice and birds need as well as the reptiles and amphibians. Further because of the wild flowers, it attracts numerous insects that can feed the birds, amphibians, reptiles etc.

While it was a bit windy the weather was great and the work while hard was not arduous and we could see results as the work progressed. However, while we saw no small mammals there were plenty of Toads and frogs to be found as we raked the grass up.

There were plenty of volunteers attending too, so that a number of objectives were fulfilled. This included litter picking, a job that I am trying to get all conservation organisations to call "Womballing", as well as trimming back some of the trees along a main path to make access safe and easy.

For me though the high light of the day was getting this picture of a Common Sympetrum Dragonfly Sympetrum sanguineum as it rested for a moment on some ones hi-visibility coat.