RAUK - Archived Forum - Ash Catastrophy

An adder site in London suffered a fire - the population was thought to be lost due to the size of the fire - but in 2005 adders were seen again...so lets not give up hope

Jon

Ouch, I know the area, yeah thats further south of the large 05 burn, which was...erm NE of the SW butts (can't remember the numbers :P).

Yateley (north) also burned out a huge area last year, managed to find one unharmed Lv under a scorched tin, hundreds of yards from any cover. Needless to say I carried her to closest cover.

This was all prime habitat. Lv was under closest tin in pic.

I was at Ash on Saturday, (Henley bit). Didn't see a sausage!..nor any herps. I envy you folks who can get out in the week . Here I am with nice new lens, and nothing to point it at, except the cat.

On the plus side, at least Ash is so huge an area, that re-colonisation is very likely .

hi Alan sorry to hear about the burn at ash ranges i know how you feel, from helping out with the laying of the tins at yateley to seeing the fire damaged area made me feel sick to the stomach.

  hope all is not lost

    Paul 

hi Steve have you been to the little adder site you told me about i went there the other day it was cold and the ice was still on the puddles but the sun was in & out walked round twice & nothing, but as you walk round you come to a small bank in front of you go left on to the road & walk with the bank to your right its a nice sun trap two adders on the bank within 10ft apart, could this be the hibernation site ?? your thoughts.

  the time of sitings 13:00hrs

  Paul

HIhi Paul,

Unfortunately, work is mad atm, so only chance I've had to get out was last Saturday, and yes I did check out that site in Ash, and had a quick wander around Brookwood too. Although bouyed by sightings on the forum from the Friday, I saw nothing at all out on the Saturday.

I don't know where the hibernacula are on that Ash site, but I'm betting its well into the trees (not many other options really). Because of the short hours of direct sunlight (due to masking by the trees), and the thermal inertia of the culture, I wasn't expecting those adders to be out as early as other sites, but great news they are out and about. Soon as I have time, and the conditions are right, I'll scoot out there :P

Did you manage to get any pics ?

yes mate i put the pics on the adder forum under early adders page 2 & 3 how do you find a hibernation site & depending on location have it fenced of or something to stop people having exes to it, do adders group together to hibernate if so would radio tagging or something Simula help to locate hibernacula and preserve them

 any thoughts   Steve/Alan

Paul

[QUOTE=Vicar], and the thermal inertia of the culture,[/QUOTE]

Vicar. Without meaning to stray from this important topic of the potentially disasterous effects of mindless vandalism, or irresponsibly caused fires, could you, please, just briefly explain exactly what 'thermal inertia' means? It's been taxing my grey matter since yesterday, & although i THINK i know what it means, i'd appreciate a little clarification. Is it in any way akin to a heathlands micro climate? Reason i'm asking is actually largely to do with seemingly cold woods, or forests, in early spring, where although little decent sunshine might penetrate, very successful frog & toad spawning ponds (even spawn filled tractor ruts) can nevertheless sometimes be found. Probably going off a bit in the wrong direction, knowing my luck, but anyway..

Mick,

Sure, can't say if its an accepted term in the Herp world, but this is what I meant:

The site both Paul and I were refering to, is essentially a fire-break in dense woodland. This makes it a superb observation site, as the adders in the area have good low-lying culture for prey and cover from predation, but only a very limited opportunity for basking, as sunlight only falls directly onto one side of the fire-break.

Its not unusual to see 10-20 adder within 5 minutes walk. The immediate cover (in sunlight) doesn't seem particularly suitable for hibernacula, although I could be wrong with this assumption. There is good dense cover further into the woodland which would most likely offer a degree of thermal insulation from winter frosts.

My assumption is, that if indeed these adders hibernate a few feet (maybe tens of feet) into the dense woodland, then there would be a small yet significant delay in their ability to detect that temperatures have risen, compared to hibernacula with adequate, yet less thermal insulation.

At the moment, their basking sites only receive sunlight from maybe 10:30am to 2:30pm (at best), and as ambient temperatures have been low, the opportunity for them to get upto 'working temperature' via direct radiation is limited, compared with more open sites.

Hope this helps.