"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me" ..

Hazleton Common - first spring visit

Some early spring action captured at Hazleton Common during a Lockdown "STAY LOCAL" walk and exercise. It's great to have such natural beauties inhabiting a site that is within a brisk walk of home.

Adder (Vipera berus)

Common lizard (Zootoca vivipara)

Palmate newt (Lissotriton helveticus)

Comma (Polygonia c-album)

Also seen brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni), peacock (Aglais io), 7-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) and Buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius).

.. "Go Wild in the Country .."

"Wild, Go wild, Go wild in the country
Where snakes in the grass are absolutely free"

Dave Barbarossa, Leigh Gorman, Malcolm McClaren & Matthew Ashman 1981

With the shift in day time temperatures over the past week - I have been very keen to get some early reptile sightings under my belt - and have consequently made two visits to Hazleton Common, in the hope of catching up with the local populations.

Conditions on Sunday 17th Feb looked good over the late morning and lunchtime - but despite extensive searches in known "hot spots" I drew a blank for reptiles. However, I did get my first year's sighting of newt spp. with at least three animals being seen in one of the smaller of the three ponds - probably Lissotriton helveticus - although I was not entirely convinced when reviewing the pretty dreadful record shot?.

Sightings of brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) and comma (Polygonia c-album) added interest along with several bumblebees.

Returning today for a couple of hours in bright sunshine with temperatures heading north of 14 deg C before mid-day I was more than confident that we would find our quarry. The usual areas on the northern half of the site drew a complete blank - despite the warm air temperature the artificial refugia were cold and damp to the touch - the leaf litter and dead bracken surrounding them feeling much warmer.

Early on - we struck lucky and found a grass snake (Natrix helvetica) basking in a recently cleared area within the bramble (Rubus fruticosus).

Grass snake

In the southern half of the site - we failed to find any more reptiles on our first sweep of the usual areas. So explored the ponds again for newts and this time found them in all three of ponds. The western pond being most productive with double figures being seen beneath the murky surface - a couple of dodgy record shots later, and I remain reluctant to take them to species.

As we headed back - I rechecked the margins of vegetation around a refugia - and found a second snake, inadvertently flushing it as I took a photograph. On the briefest of views I identified it as a grass snake, and it was only at home later - reviewing the picture that I realised that it was a melanistic adder (Vipera berus), which was subsequently verified by Mark one of the local Horndean Parish Rangers.

Adder

On this second visit the numbers of brimstone on the wing had increased with at least six individuals seen, singles of peacock (Aglais io) were also noted at Hazleton Common and Dell Piece West.

Crete pt 2 reptiles and amphibians

This selection of photographs covers the reptiles and single amphibian species that we encountered over two weeks in Crete - 25th Sept - Oct 9th inclusive.

Despite some effort being put into searching for reptiles and amphibians - our list remains short and covers only the most easily encountered species. No snakes were seen, tortoises remained a mystery to us and out of the three gecko species present on the island (Coghlan, S. 2001; cretanbeaches.com 2018) only one was successfully seen and identified.

Such a dismal list is undoubtedly the result of a combination of factors incl. time of + effort of searches; habitat; size of area and locations visited; access to habitat; individual bias i.e. we got very good at spotting Cretan wall lizard (Podarcis cretensis); seasonal affects; possible misidentification; disturbance.

Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata) - Vamos

This juvenile Balkan green lizard was the only individual noted of this species. It was observed crossing a farm track on the outskirts of Vamos .. and was obliging enough to freeze momentarily for the camera.

Arnold and Ovendon (2004) describe a single sub-species of Balkan green lizard inhabiting Crete Lacerta trilineata polylepidota. However, cretanbeaches.com (ibid) states that two sub-species are present. Both the former Lacerta t. polylepidota as well as Lacerta t. trilineata.

The Cretan wall lizard is the only endemic species of lizard on the island - enjoying a taxonomic split from Erhard's wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii) as recently as 2008 (Wikipedia 2018). This species of lizard was by far our most commonly encountered reptile, seen throughout our travels and only seemingly excluded from areas of close human habitation where the ubiquity of the feral domestic cat (Felis catus) may well have suppressed the population?

Cretan wall lizard

Balkan terrapin (Mauremys rivulata) was noted in small numbers at Georgioupolis Lake - too far away for photographs - stacked as they were like a pile of abandoned dinner plates on a distant muddy foreshore.

A very flat and very dead green toad (Bufo viridis) was found on the farm track to the south of Vamos which leads into the next valley.

green toad (deceased)

The Turkish gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) was the only gecko species successfully recorded on the trip - three individuals being seen on various walls around the Arosmari Village Hotel

Turkish gecko

The small Turkish gecko in hand (above) was rescued from the clutches of a local moggy, its tail had been lost. However, with the stump being both clean and dry it looked as if the loss had occurred somewhat prior to the most recent cat encounter.

Close examination of this tiny survivor also nailed the ID as Turkish gecko - the adhesive pads on it's toes being "not extend[ed] to the toe-tips and are divided beneath" as per Arnold and Ovendon (ibid).

Turkish gecko - adhesive pad detail

A probable ocellated skink (Chalcides ocellatus) was disturbed on a farmland waste above Vamos - the briefest of views - but it had a distinctly different Jizz from the other reptiles encountered.

Bibliography

Arnold, N. & Ovendon D. (2004) 2nd Edition A Field Guide to the Reptiles and Amphibians of Britain and Europe Collins, Harper Collins Publishers, London

cretanbeaches.com (2018) [Online] Explore Cretan Fauna Available at: https://www.cretanbeaches.com/en/fauna-and-animal-species Accessed 21st December 2018

Cochlan, S. (2001) Revised 5th Edition A Birdwatching Guide to Crete Arelquin Press, Essex

Wikipedia (2018) [Online] Podarcis cretensis Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podarcis_cretensis Accessed 21st December 2018

Hazleton Common

Vipera berus and Anguis fragilis

Vipera berus

Vipera berus

Anguis fragilis

Lissotriton helveticus

Andrena (Adrena) clarkella

Polygonia c-album

Frogspawn, Catherington Pond

Catherington Pond is our nearest wetland - it sits on the opposite side of the road to the entrance to Catherington Down SSSI - and as importantly Ca. 100m up the road from The Farmer Inn.

A thoughtful barman at The Farmer Inn, once served me a pint of Gales H.S.B. straight from the barrel so I didn't have to wait whilst it was pulled through the pipes - a simple joy, and a memorable one.

The pond is maintained by the Horndean Parish Council Rangers. This frog (Rana temporaria) record is only my second amphibian record for the site. The first being of smooth newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) dated 30th May 2017.

Hazleton Common, Horndean - a cracking site for reptiles!

I have visited Hazleton Common (LNR) three times between the 18th and 24th Sept - primarily on the lookout for reptiles and in particular the notable population of "black adder" (Vipera Berus) which are recorded here.

The site is just shy of 16 hectares, containing large areas of open "acid grassland", three ponds, waterlogged grassland and a couple of small areas of ancient woodland. Described as a "habitat in transition" the acid grassland has been managed to promote gorse and heather (Horndean Biodiversity Action Plan). These two plants can be found in particular towards the southern end of the site, as you walk towards the ponds.

The site contains four of the six native species of reptile, and the largest pond has records for great crested newt (Triturus cristatus) (Horndean Biodiversity Action Plan).

I found all four reptile species, but did not look for the GCN. Only a single black adder was seen on the 24th. By the end of the three visits I encountered a minimum of 8 slow worm (Anguis fragilis), 2 grass snake (Natrix natrix), 5 adder and a couple of common lizard (Lacerta vivipara). A good haul, although I have to be content with a single record shot of the black adder, as it disappears into bramble scrub.

slow worm

common lizard

Adder

heather (Calluna vulgaris)

black adder (record shot)

the three ponds

small copper (Lycaena phlaeas)

speckled wood (Pararge aegeria)

Other mobile species noted over the course of the visits included: small copper and speckled wood butterfly; ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum) and southern hawker (Aeshna cyanea).

Bibliography

Horndean Biodiversity Action Plan can be found at: Horndean Biodiversity Action Plan

Horndean Biodiversity Group can be found at: Horndean Biodiversity Group

A very small selection of Cretan reptiles and amphibians

Erhard's wall lizard (Podarcis erhardii) Samaria Gorge 13th September 2010

Turkish gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) 14th September 2010 Vamos (villa wall)

stripe-necked terrapin (Mauremys caspica) Georgiopolis 18th September 2010

Incidental records amounting to only three species out of a possible list of 16 reptiles and amphibians which inhabit Crete.