Wind, Wet and Pond Snails

It was strange not having Stacey with us to start the day…. as stated in the previous blog she will soon be heading South with the British Antarctic Survey to study Penguins.  We wish her all the best and thank her for her hard work and friendship . I will put links to her blog, and other links regarding her work in the near future. We hope she will return safely next year as she is part of our Foxglove Covert family. Stacey, thank you!

The day started sunny but blustery so we had a quick check to ensure there were no trees down then straight on with the tasks of the day. The morning was filled with a variety of tasks; Keith did a few maintenance jobs in the work shop before finishing off the painting of the Portacabin, a few folk went up to the Grand Fir to rake up previously cut grasses and pulling gorse, while John and I repaired boardwalks and went to look at other pending job requirements.

After lunch the team put their survey hats on and made their way to the Wetland to start our yearly pond snail survey.The weather was not ideal, and a few heavy showers came our way.

The snail we were keen to find was the Mud Snail, which thankfully we found in a number of the ponds.

This nationally scarce distinctively elongate pond snail, is closely associated with pools and pond margins in agriculturally-unimproved habitats, typically on historic Commons.

The global population was recently estimated to have declined by 20-25% over 15 years with a 25-49% decline in Great Britain during the period 1985-2010. It is scarce and declining in most parts of its limited global range (Mud Snail is restricted to Western Europe) and has become extinct in Ireland and Poland.

We also found plenty of immature Smooth or Palmate newts, but at this age we were unable to pin point which was which.

Thank you to all the volunteers for their hard work today, wet but happy!