Night at the Aviation Museum

I convinced our newt surveying team to push new frontiers on Monday, so it was over the site boundary and into the territory of the Gatwick Aviation Museum (with the curator Ashley's permission of course). Things seemed to start off so well, with a Common Toad vying for the spotlight...

I was at that moment we realised the Clulite torch hadn't actually charged up, and we were going to have to borrow Ashley's spotlight instead, which would suffice for the pools here, but not for the deeper Gatwick ponds...
   I also hadn't realised that my camera was on hybrid mode, so all my rubbish shots are accompanied by banal chat and bad language, sadly capturing none of my usual witticisms.

It was still a productive visit though, as we recorded four amphibian species, including a non-native; what we thought was a Marsh Frog, with its bright green dorsal stripe blending in well with the blanket weed.

Marsh Frog (Rana ridibunda) 

Our other two species were Common Frog and Smooth Newt. No owls were calling, but I did hear the nocturnal flight calls of some late-season Redwing.

Common Frog (Rana temporaria)

Thanks to Tom F, Rina and Ryan for giving up your evening!

Hibernacularing

I find it quite fun making up unofficial biological terms (many people don't know I coined the word 'ecologising', spelt the UK English way.) Sadly, the JS Agriculture team know me pretty well and, more often than not, I get called on it.

A snake 'hibernaculum' - Illustration by Larry Eifert (larryeifert.com) Demonstrating a pit
 filled with a mixture of rubble and deadwood, with a growing top layer of vegetation

I should stress though that hibernaculum is a real word; a place where beasties such as cold-blooded reptiles and amphibians like to bed down for the winter. These 'hibernacula' (as Jake pointed out is the pluralisation, not 'hibernaculars' ...thankyouverymuch) are structures which can be natural or created, even sometimes accidentally, as a refuge. It is based on very simple principles - a mound or pit filled with clean or natural materials with holes and gaps to squeeze/curl up amongst/wedge into, where the temperature remains fairly constant and the frost cannot get in.

 Expert Hibernacularist, Jake of JS Agriculture

A pit was dug on slightly sloping ground, about 30cm-90cm deep. The base was

 broken up with the pick, with sand and plenty of rubble added

'La belle monticule pour les amphibiens' - the concise French term for hibernaculum.

 (I may have made that up too)

The finished article is pictured above - 5 star luxury accommodation, bordered by a sunny mound for those short, opportunistic spring days of sunbathing. A rambling rose garden with bramble scrub is available for hiding away in should any birds of prey pass by, or pesky humans with their nosy dogs.

The next one is situated in a more wooded habitat, close to our newt ponds:

Lauren - our smallest but very enthusiastic hibernacularist 

A pile of broken bricks topped with deadwood, bark chips, logs and nearby brash

'Le hibernacle'. The actual and rather dull translation into French by Google

Another luxury 5 star winter holiday home available to rent; this one with more of a woodland character, containing a nice warming, rotting logpile and large pool just out the back. The varying locations of our hibernacula affect the decor: this one under more tree cover contains a larger amount of wood and vegetation, whereas the one in the grassland has more stone and turf. We will continue to add natural materials to these structures as our nearby habitat management continues.