As you may have read in my previous blog “Frog Blog” we have some common frog Rana temporaria tadpoles living in our visitor centre, or at least growing in our tank until they are released back onto the bog! Watching these amazing amphibians change throughout their lifecycle, from frogspawn to tadpoles to eventually adult frogs (they have back legs now) is a very interesting experience. We have 2 other amphibian species at Forsinard, these are the common toad Bufo bufo and the palmate newt Lissotriton helveticus. The palmate newt is the only species of newt that can survive our acidic peaty waters. All three have very interesting lifecycles and behaviours so I was excited to be taking part in Froglifes Dragon Finder event at the Highland Council Seadrift Centre last Saturday.
Froglife is a national charity that aims to conserve reptiles, amphibians and the habitats that they depend on. Froglife Scotland’s Dragon Finder Project is a project that is travelling Scotland aiming to visit as many places and people as possible. They are looking for members of the public to report any sightings they have of reptiles and amphibians and have produced a free app you can download to instantly report your sightings:
http://www.froglife.org/dragonfinder/app/
In preparation for the event I read up on the species that live in Forsinard. As well as the 3 species of amphibian we also have 2 species of reptile that live in the Flow Country, the common lizard Zootoca vivipara and the adder Vipera berus. Reading about these species makes you appreciate how diverse life is in the bog. The Froglife website has a lot of information on British species of amphibians and reptiles if you want to learn more.
http://www.froglife.org/
The Froglife event took place at the Highland Councils Seadrift centre, with Sam the ranger. Sam managed to find us some palmate newts and a palmate newt eft (a young newt that still has its external gills) to display at the centre for the day and 6 of the Forsinard tadpoles came along for the trip too- they are safely back in the tank with the others now. It is a great venue, situated right next to the beautiful Dunnet Bay and with many natural history artefacts and displays to look at there is plenty to see and do. Froglife staff Vicky and James set up a great display in the centre, as well as the live specimens there was information and crafts. Children were able to decorate their own frog and make origami frogs and newts. The RSPB Forsinard had a small display with some information on the reptiles and amphibians in Forsinard. With over 50 visitors to the centre it was a great success.
Checking refugia- no luck!
Some children enjoying the pond dipping.
James and Paul showing some visitors the pond life.
In the afternoon the sun was shining so we went out for a guided walk into Dunnet Forest. The Dunnet Forest Trust had kindly let us put out refugia in the forest the week before. Refugia are pieces of metal or material placed out in areas to attract reptiles to bask on or under, allowing them to warm themselves. With 15 visitors, Sam from the Highland Council, James from Froglife, our two very helpful volunteers for the day Paul and Jack and myself went out to check the refugia. Unfortunately we didn’t find any reptiles under any of the refugia, but we did see some great invertebrates while on the walk including a burnet moth and a red damselfly. After the refugia check we went on to do some pond dipping! This was a success, finding many palmate newts both fully grown and in eft form as well as a number of invertebrate species including a great diving beetle.
__Great Diving beetle and palmate newt.
After tiring everyone out searching the pond we made our way slowly back to Seadrift enjoying the sunshine, and a good thing we did, as just before we left the woods Jack found us a female common lizard basking in the sunshine. She was very obliging and allowed us all to get very close and take pictures. We were close enough to see that she had lost her tail. Many lizard species have the ability to lose their tail when caught by predators. The tail is left behind and continues to move for a few minutes, keeping the predator interested while the lizard can escape. So this was a lucky lizard!
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Female common lizard basking in the sun.
After watching her for a few minutes (and her watching us!) she scurried back into the wood pile she was sitting on, and we all walked back to Seadrift after what was a successful day!
If you want to learn more about reptiles or amphibians, or you want to get involved have a look at the Froglife website, or contact us here at Forsinard. And don’t forget to keep an eye on this blog and our Facebook to see how our tadpoles are getting on
Eve, Alison and Ros travelled all the way from Alness to be at the Froglife event, looks like they had fun!