Last month I put a series of 'reptile refugia' out at both Radipole and Lodmoor. These are basically sheets of corrugated roofing material measuring 2' by 3'. The idea is that our resident reptiles will do their sunbathing either under or on them as they warm themselves up before they can start their daily activities.
We have very few records of the reptiles that live on our sites in Weymouth, so by using these (and looking at the ground whilst walking between them!) I hope we might discover a bit more about what's here and where.
At the moment we can only check some of the 'refugia' as we don't want to disturb any nesting birds, but hopefully later in the season we will be able to check them all more methodically.
At Radipole all we have found so far has been a bank vole, which sensibly seems to have made a nest in a new warm, damp, insect-rich place!
At Lodmoor, however, we have found a female slow worm on 2 occasions. We already knew they were present there, but it will be interesting to find out their extent across the site.