Projects A rewarding year for Welsh reptiles By Pete Hill - Connecting the Dragons Project Officer ARC’s Connecting the Dragon Project Officer, Pete Hill fills us in on work the team has been doing for sand lizards and adders in Wales this year. Earlier on this year, the Connecting the Dragons team completed specialist sand lizard field skills survey training for volunteers. The training will mean that volunteers will be able to assist with monitoring some midWales sites at which we have successfully reintroduced sand lizards. Trainees being accredited on ARC's organisational survey licence, further develops their skills and contributes toward a better-informed understanding of our reintroduced populations of sand lizard in Wales, how they are faring, and spreading into and colonising new areas of habitat. Over the summer, fellow Connecting the Dragons officer, George and I have been mentoring these volunteers in the field. We were recently surveying a section of a Welsh sand dune at which ARC reintroduced sand lizards 12 years ago. The northern-most point of the dune is separated from the main dune, and is usually inaccessible due to it being fenced off for most of the season to enable plovers (short billed shorebirds) to nest undisturbed. Once the chicks had fledged, George, the volunteers and I were able to survey the area for the first time in ideal weather conditions. We are pleased to report that four hatchling sand lizards were recorded in the plover area, as well as another hatchling and an adult female elsewhere in the dunes. There were plenty of common lizards out and about also, as well as a female adder. These latest records demonstrate that the sand lizards have now colonised the site entirely. Another successful reintroduction!
Sand lizard hatchling © Pete Hill (ARC).
Alongside our ongoing work to improve the adder’s public image, we have been undertaking habitat management to benefit the local adder population and other reptiles at a National Nature Reserve comprising of a mosaic of habitats including grassland, marsh, woodland and dune in South Wales. Maintaining sun-lit edges and interfaces throughout the woody areas maintains connectivity for many smaller species and also enables reptiles to migrate seasonally within a site, whilst also providing opportunities to bask and forage. In late spring or early summer, female grass snakes that are gravid (carrying eggs) need to migrate toward a suitable location where their eggs will incubate successfully. There is a choice of options for a female grass snake to deposit her eggs within the area, and maintaining the sunny corridors and glades provides an essential network of safe migration routes throughout the habitat mosaic.
Grass snake © Nick Dobbs (ARC).
The cut timber and brash arisings resulting from the work are used to create brash piles. Creating brash piles within clearings and along sunny edges also increases essential structural diversity at ground level. The tangle of brash, logs, branches and twigs provide opportunities for solar-powered reptiles, providing safe refuge, microclimates for effective basking and also, an environment in which prey species can thrive.
Making sure that the rides, tracks, glades and clearings don’t become overgrown also enables a greater diversity of ground cover plants to flourish, particularly along sunny edges. The species-rich clearings and sunny edges provide a diverse range of microhabitats. Such sun-traps are sheltered from the wind and are utilised by a wide range of wildlife such as roosting dragonflies, birds and butterflies and enable a range of flowering plants to flourish and provide nectar for pollinators and also provides accessible nocturnal foraging routes for bat species.
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Next to benefit from habitat management will be great crested newts as the team will be pruning back around breeding ponds to ensure that enough vital sunlight continues to reach the ponds. The team will also be creating some new ponds. We will keep you updated with progress in the coming months!
