Kelly and The Hunt for the Great Crested Newt

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity, along with one of my colleagues (Tom), to attend a Great Crested Newt(GCN) Licensing for Surveys Course. It was held in Warrington at Rixton Claypits Local Nature Reserve on a lovely sunny day following the recent snow. It involved sitting in a classroom environment for half the day and learning about identification skills of the UK's amphibians (and any rogue non-native species), the legislation associated with GCN, the ecology of GCN and the techniques involved when surveying. Once all of these bases were covered we then were let loose outdoors!

One survey technique is bottle trapping which involves cutting the top off a 2 litre Coke bottle (other fizzy drinks are available) and attaching this to a garden cane which will then be placed into the pond. The bottle is attached at an angle so that a pocket of air is left, the lid end of the bottle is inserted back into the bottle (with careful precision), the cap is taken off and then the home-made trap is effective and put into place. The class then explored the ponds outside and learnt the techniques for egg searching, netting and how to assess the ponds using the Habitat Suitability Index. Egg Searching involves hand searching all vegetation that has been curled up by the GCN and have individual eggs laid in each curl (the course leader found a GCN egg on the first attempt!) Netting involves inserting the dipping net into the pond and moving it around in the hope that any amphibians present will be caught. The Habitat Suitability Index is the assessment undertaken before any further surveys are conducted in order to discover how suitable each pond is for Great Crested Newts, which involves rating each pond on 10 different factors (feel free to ring Tom at any time of the working day to discuss these factors - he's a pro!).

Once the bottle traps were safely in place and the survey techniques had been practiced, it was time to let it get dark so that the GCN would become active! This meant only one thing - time for the pub! It did involve a GCN themed pub quiz however, so it wasn't totally relaxing! Once it was dark enough to go back out we walked around the ponds and collected all the bottle traps (very important thing to remember to keep all GCN alive). We also practiced torching which, contrary to what some people in the office thought, does not mean burning amphibians, but involves shining a very bright torch over the surface of the water to identify any GCN present.

It was a very informative and fun day and will aid myself and Tom to obtain a GCN licence. During this survey season we will be going out with Senior Ecologist Helen to practice all the survey techniques we learnt and hopefully we will then be able to apply for a licence. These licenses are essential as Great Crested Newts are highly protected by UK and European law being a European Protected Species and therefore any person who is likely to disturb these amphibians needs to be licensed to do so.

The team at Pleydell Smithyman Limited can provide a range of ecology services, if you need advice and support to help understand which ecological surveys you require, please contact our Senior Ecologist Helen on 01952 433211 or Helen@pleydellsmithyman.co.uk