For several years now volunteers and staff have been keeping an eye on the reptile
population at Blashford. And we are delighted to say that we have a pretty healthy
population – at least of some species. The habitat on the reserve is not conducive to all UK reptiles (Smooth Snakes and Sand Lizards have very specific habitat requirements) but we do have thriving populations of Adders, Grass Snakes and Slow Worms.
As part of ‘keeping an eye’ two teams of volunteers regularly carry out surveys on
the reserve. One team does the morning surveys and the other the afternoon, during the active reptile season from March to October.
Surveys involve both visual searches of the site and the use of artificial refugia – namely
corrugated felts and tins. These are placed in the areas most likely to support
reptiles and in sunny locations, providing a solar heated refuge and protection from
avian predation. Generally they are away from public view to avoid unnecessary
disturbance. The disturbance of these refugia can significantly affect our ability to determine
the presence of reptiles. The higher levels of disturbance cause them to increase the time spent under dense cover and results in them using less optimal habitat. This has both a negative effect on surveying, and on our populations of reptiles as a whole. If you do happen to come across refugia (here at Blashford or anywhere else on your travels) it is very important that you keep your distance and do not disturb them. Sometimes reptiles are found close to, but not underneath the refugia. If you have binoculars and/or a camera with a good lens, it is occasionally possible to get photos of these from quite far away. Please do heed the ‘DO NOT DISTURB’ notices on the refugia and keep a good distance away – we pride ourselves at Blashford on contributing to science, conservation and education, and hope that visitors to the reserve will respect this.
By doing regular monitoring we not only see what types of reptiles are on the site but
we learn a bit more about their behaviour and how this changes throughout the year. We get to know the numbers of different populations of each species around the reserve, particularly by where they first emerge after the winter hibernation period. For those nerds amongst you the term for hibernation amongst snakes and amphibians is ‘brumation’. Brumation is the term used for the hibernation of cold-blooded animals.
We generally see how the reptiles at Blashford respond to the temperature. In the morning they will emerge into the sunlight in order to raise their body temperature and enable their muscles etc. to become active. But during the day, a good time to see them could be in the sunshine after a dull, cloudy or damp period, when they will come out into the open to bask
and warm up. Once warm they will often move off to carry out their daily business, look for food, find a mate etc.
An extended period of hot weather is not usually good for sightings, as the reptiles have less need for the added warmth of the refugia. Snakes are usually found on the sunny sides of vegetation, along the edges where they are seldom far from dense cover for protection. But once warm it is not uncommon to see a grass snake swimming across a pond or a lake. They are sometimes known as ‘water snakes’. Any of the reptiles could be seen crossing paths and verges, so don’t rush your walks, you never know what you might see if you are walking softly.
Although snakes may eat a wide variety of food depending on what is available and
how hungry they are, adders and grass snakes tend to prioritise different types.
Adders mainly eat small rodents and lizards, whilst grass snakes’ preferred foods are
frogs, toads and newts.
Slow worms are, of course, NOT worms or snakes, but are actually legless lizards. Characteristics include the ability to shed their tails and blink with their eyelids, which snakes are unable to do. They have a different diet to snakes and feed on a variety of invertebrates; slugs, snails, spiders and earthworms.
One of our puzzles at Blashford is that we haven’t recorded any common lizards
even though the habitat would seem to be suitable; that is woodland, grassland,
brown field sites. We do have woodland, there are some grassy areas and we are a
former airfield and quarrying site after all. There have been a couple of suspected
sightings and one or two reports but no regular confirmation. If you see any do let us
know. Time and place would be good to know and if you can get a picture that would
be brilliant …although they are pretty quick to disappear!!
For those of you who are interested in learning more about any of these species,
surveying procedures etc. you can visit ARC, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.
https://www.arc-trust.org. Thank you to Jacki for writing this blog post, and to all the volunteers that are dedicated to recording and protecting the reptiles here at Blashford.
Don’t forget, if you’re uploading photos to Twitter please write Blashford Lakes within the post so that we can find it and retweet it!
Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve 