Successful newt hunting

I carried out one last visit to Rothwell Country Park this evening before I go away on holiday. I managed to get some better pH and conductivity results using the digital metres, and am optimistic that this will give me some more meaningful data for my project. We also carried out some torching with overall quite poor results, however Robert did manage to catch his newt! We identified it as an adult male smooth newt. Although I am sure there was a female with him last time, we couldn't find any signs of eggs (though it was getting a bit too dark).

I got an email from one of the post-grad students in South Africa today - very welcoming and with lots of hints and tips. I can't believe it is just a few days until I fly now! I'm not looking forward to the long flight, but have booked seats on the end of the aisle so at least I can get up and wander around a bit more easily.  I made sure I packed last weekend so I don't have to worry about that this week when I am trying to close down issues at work. I've just got a few items of clothing to put through the wash, then that's me ready to go.

Other good news: I got confirmation from the OU last week that I have passed another two short course modules: S173 Plants & People and S175 The Frozen Planet. This means I have been awarded the Certificate in Contemporary Science. Still a long way to go until I get my degree, but at least one milestone has been reached.

Rivers Workshop at Nethergill Farm

Yesterday I attended a Rivers Workshop at Nethergill Farm, run through the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust. I stayed with friends who live close by to avoid a long drive up on the morning, and had amazing views on the drive over the hill. It reminded me how beautiful the Yorkshire Dales are.  We were blessed with excellent weather, and our small, friendly and informal group had fun learning new skills down by Oughtershaw Beck, a tributary of the river Wharfe. 

In the morning we learnt about river invertebrates. We started off in the river turning over stones, and found numerous caddis fly cases almost straight away. We then had a go at kick sampling, using a large fine mesh net to collect the invertebrates stirred up from the bottom of the river.  These were examined in a white tray, then taken back to the classroom for closer examination. The field centre has a huge electronic white board, and this was hooked up to a magnifier, so we could isolate a few individuals and zoom in on them on screen to have a detailed looked. We managed to find stone fly, may fly, a caddis fly larva in its case, and fresh water shrimp, amongst others.

After a delicious lunch we returned to the river side to carry out some practical conservation tasks. To provide shade along the river bank, we planted some trees, constructing tree guards around them to protect them from grazing animals. We then made some willow bundles, and installed these one of the outer curves of the beck that is suffering from erosion. The idea is that this slows down the flow of the water, provides shelter for fish and other creatures, and helps to stablise the bank. Some of the willow will sprout and grow.

An excellent day, putting some of my recent studies into practice and reacquainting myself with a beautiful part of the world.

The acid test

Today I received my pH and conductivity meters for the pond surveys. At last I can upgrade from litmus paper. Hopefully I will get some more accurate and meaningful results for my project too!

Lots of toad activity

Last weekend I took my long suffering husband for a Sunday afternoon stroll around some ponds. Whilst we didn't see any actual amphibians, we did find two ponds I didn't know were there; found one that was previously there had completely dried up; had a possible sighting of a newt; and we found frog spawn in some of the ponds.

The frogs in our own little garden pond have been active all week - with warmer weather we are now up to 14 clumps of frog spawn. I did a mock run of my correlation test from the initial results and it was totally meaningless, ie. zero correlation.  So I decided it was worth another trip to my project site to try and gather some more data, and it was worth it.

We found evidence of new frog spawn, with some in two pond where it wasn't present on the last visit. However, the big difference was the number of amphibians we saw.  In the first half dozen ponds, we found the odd toad here or there.  However in the seventh pond there were dozen of toads. Maybe it was just easier to see them - the water was clear, shallow, and the toads were very easy to see. They popped their heads up to say hello. The were very active an in a mating mood!

The next pond was the one where Robert thought he saw a newt last time. This time we saw a little frog spawn and two toads. Then I got a shout from Robert to say he saw the newt again! We didn't manage to catch it for a closer look as it was in the deeper water, but as they came up for air I think I saw a male and female, possible palmate newts. Definitely worth another visit to see if we can get a proper ID.  I had already put a newt egg strip in that pond (but there was nothing in it), so I stuck another one in for good luck.

Quite a successful trip!

A weekend off

I had an awesome weekend off studying, driving up through some spectacular and still snowy countryside through the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District National Parks. After four hours, I arrived at Wasdale Head to spend some time with family and friends.

When I got back home, I found some frog spawn in our pond.  I'm not sure whether it is fresh or was laid before the snow fell, but I will keep an eye on it to see how things develop. Maybe its a sign that my pond surveying can start soon after all.