RAUK - Archived Forum - Posts by timbadger:

 hi all, i a new mamber here, and was hoping that someone here might be involved in the north staffs/cheshire area. I am looking to expand my surveying/conserving and restoration skills. I have been working in consultancy (yes i know some of you wont like me now) for going on 4 years and hold a GCN licence. Which having read other posts i feel oblidged to point out i have spent 3 years doing surveys and courses before applying for and certainly do not think that this makes me any type of expert, although i would like to think profficient.

Anyhow, thats why im here to learn, every day is a school day after all!

Sorry a bit of a convoluted post. So if there are people in staffs out there that are part of a herpie group id love to know about them. thank you

Yeah i have already been on the froglife, and searched as much as i can to find a specific staffs group. Just seems to be that there has been a group in planning and been trying to set one up for a while, thats why i thought there might have been some talk. Im waiting on the wildlife trust too, to see if they have any info. Cant see why there wouldnt be interest around here there cresties about and i hear tell of adders..

Nice to get my first reply though

cheers

Ah yes very good point Mr Brady, (being extra polite as ive already read some of your posts regarding consultants)

The adder monitoring sounds just the ticket to, thanks JC.

Its all very appreciated.

If there are active people up here i was wondering about having a little talk about some projects that have been going on around here, most notably the re-grading and destruction of a lovely old piece of farm land stuffed with cresties (i did see evidence of fences and pits so assume they were translocated, but have not seen any replacement habbitat).

Ok probably best for me to stop there before i get into a rant...the land was my familys old farm.. Compulsarily purchased years back

sigh....

In relation to cutting corrugated sheets into tins, yes you get through many many blades. In my experience often big packs of the cheaper blades (screwfix does cheap packs of 10) work nearly as well as the expensive ones, and give you a nice excuse to stop and have a quick sit down. The work position (invariably bent over) is nasty and the vibration on the arms ts quite harsh.

Having said all this it really is the cheapest and quickest way of getting tin cut.

I know i'm new hear but with a half decent De-walt large angle grinder ive cut over two thousand tins this year alone, and have been doing it for a number of years (not always in those numbers)

The one thing i would stress though is that the guage of the tin you get makes the world of difference to the time to cut it!

Also on the thinner stuff which was easier to cuti invariably gets a ridge of waste at the back of the cut, it takes time but please turn the tin over and just run the blade down it, it peels of easily but does really cut very badly indeed (or cuts well depending on your point of view) even through welding gloves if you are unlucky....i have scars..

hope that helps..

Oh i see, like that is it Doc.... i mean you come in and try your best.....

Seriously though you have a point, which is one of the reasons that i want to be involved from the other side if you want to look at it like that. And theres nothing wrong with a bit of in-industry quality control

Im just keen to be involved with people who "know better than me" and hope that it can be reciprocal with me being able to offer something back in terms of useful time and so on. Doesnt sound to unlikely does it?

Tim

Im quite chuffed for a relatively slow moving forum i seem to have achieved quite a little thread here

See you love us 'Doc (that is so going to stick)

While im here i was pondering on the best way of building hibernaculumn (never could spell that) i have had a bit of a search around on the site and other sources and have been involved in making a few etc etc. but any tips would be good. Also how different do you make them for different species or can you not really specify them? (i wouldnt of thought you could but it might be interesting to try). Im now thinking is bigger better ie a 8m long bund or would two 4m seperate items be preferable, how much vegetation/compost might be considered normal. To be honest ive really used what was in the area before now, so some are mainly slate and wood others more varied...

Hi and thanks for the reply gemma,

Seems a daft question but when you say brash rather than brush..? i was under the impression that brash was small cuttings and twigs and even reasonable sized branches.. infact not unlike brush?!? Think i might not quite have that right but basically we are talkin vegatative matter which will halp to keep channels and passages open in the hibenaculum, exposing more as they rot back, not to mention the added insulation and temperature increase associated with rotting.

Ive always though that using the turf from the area you dug the hole for the hibernacula to 'cap' it was a spiffing idea. Leaves a nice gap at the ground level for entry exit etc.

Right Chris, im definately interested, although work commitments will leave me free only on weekends would certainly be worth a contact nearer the time. What are your views about non experienced singnificant others..? Might be a 'tag-allong' requiremnt  especially if the weather is good.

Thanks a lot for telling me about this though chris.

Ok another one for chris, from what i gather the make adders count was based on having a prior knowlage of a population in an area and more of a monitoring consept. Well just to be apsolutely clear about this i dont have any idea of adder 'spots' here..in my own back yard...god thats embarresing when you get to write it down.

Am still interested though!

Well thank you both for the posts, any yes of course now its pointed out a 'floating' cap of vegetation isnt going to do much to stabalise the structure and will breakdown in a short time.

To continue the theme what depth would you consider to be the apsolute minimum, 60cm was mentioned above. Now would that be from the base of the excavation to the ground level or to the top of the 'dome'. Also if you have plesanty below ground can the need for a large bank/bund be reduced. I am thinking of reducing the obviouse nature of these structures at some sites and hopefully therefore disturbance.

I presume that some bank is required for the newly emerging individuals (whever the species) to bask upon.

Again thank you for the input you have all had, its very informative  and always nice to check things out!

hi all,

Regarding moving animals in non ideal circumstances or late in the year (assuming it is a last ditch solution and not avoidable) would it be possible to release individuals after artificially warming them slightly? I mean to make sure that they have the capability to move far enough to get themselves safe and under significant cover. On the same theme really, how long will reptiles sustain energy if they were artificially warmed and placed somewhere cold  like outside but on a hibernation site. Will they ahve the capability to explore the area and get themselves bedded down?

You know im so glad i started this post, you have all been a mind (or minds) of information!

Very interesting all.

Food for thought indeedy!

So really, it would be a misnomer to think that a gentle warming before release later in the year, and by this i wasnt really thinking this late, just towards the end of the season,  would assist the animal by giving it the capability for movement around the new area.

And i noticed that no-one hazarded a guese about how long an infividual retains warmth ! Im still kinda curiouse about that one.

Hi there i was looking to draw on your experiences when it comes to handling adders, more particularly the gloves that people use.

My present company have invested in very expensive snake gloves from the states, my issue is that these are not only are these costly to replace (they only lasted 2 seasons of translocation), but more importantly are bulky and difficult to catch things with and then hard to tell how much pressure is being exerted. Previously i had been using welding gloves which i believe to be think enough and understand that this is pritty much the norm.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the matter

:-)

All good advice gemma and thanks for the input, the interesting thing for me in your reply was that you use a gardening gauntlet. My aim of the post was to see what people do use for protection not really getting advice on how to actualy handle them. I apreciate that i was not clear on this point. The issue is one of Health and safety, where the company feel that without providing specialist equipment for use with venemouse animals they are at risk in terms of insurance and legal action. Im trying to find out what the standard is, since i know of no other consultancies who have these useless gloves imposed on them  

Also i wanted to check that i was corect in feeling that welding gloves are adequate for the task since ive never had one actually bite the glove (to the best of my knowlage).

Just to clarify the gloves which we are being told to use have a thick suade erm. coller which come up to your armpit, have thick pading are, i belive 'Rattler proof' being around 3mm thick. Strangely they have very short fingers  which make them fit badly.

:-)

The tip with the tubing is good many thanks.

Im glad that ive recieved the sort of answers that i hoped for, was starting to think that maybe i was not being reasonable with work, athough they are not moving about this claiming that its just something we have to do for the insurance. Im thinking its all getting very silly i cant use the gloves they are to hot in summer, distracting, irritating, reduce the efficiency of capture effort oh and did i mention expensive (hmm guese who had a nice day at work today) but know that if im 'discovered' not using them im in for an ear-full.

Ah well...

Many thanks i must say the responses ive had and speed that they have occured have been great, for this and other posts.

Hi all,

I was just wondering what peoples thoughts were on the likelyhood of cresties using large resevoirs. Ive never been asked to look at a resevoir for them before and having looked at other ones most are pritty sparsely vegetated at the edges, and probably not suitable. The one in question has some suitable egg laying material in very sporadic small patches and does have toads spawning there, but has a deep shelf in it and becomes deep and open very fast.

Also reptiles (i know wrong area) on uplands, not heathy uplands but short sheep grazed and juncusy ones. Would reptiles be likely to still be inactive in these more inhospitable areas or just unlikely to be there at all. The habitat i would have said is sub optimal at best and the wind up there means nothing stays warm very long (tins signs wood etc)

Any thoughts appreciated.

Many thanks

I dont know of any records of GCN in high salinity, however in Cambridgeshire there is Orton Pit Site of Special Scientific Interest / Special Area of Conservation.

Which has slightly raised levels of salinity (although no recent recordings) which fluctuates and they have large numbers of GCN.

I know on the continent more research has been done into this but i am not finding getting the papers easy.

Dont think that really helped you but I thought it was interesting.

I have always wondered why you rarely - if ever see larger companies taken to court for 'wildlife offences'.

Im sad to say that i dont think it is because they are less likely to impact protected species negatively, nor that they employ good people and therefore are 'covered' through that.

As mentioned in the thread the negative publicity does seem to be a possible deterent, but one wonders if it just means more closed doors rather than actual well done mitigation.

As has been covered here the sums are trivial - and the timing is usually after the event and the development. Perhapse if offences could be brought to attention quicker then the developer might be more likely to incur both the fine and the 'down' time on the project...?