We had a very relaxing morning led around Cowden Pastures KWT reserve by its former Hon. Warden and KRAG member Terry Mullender.  Then after a picinic lunch in the grounds of St Andrew’ Convent we visited land adjacent to nearby Waystrode Manor to follow up on an adder sighting of two years previously.

Cowden is a 6 hectare neutral/marshy grassland site that slopes down to an stream surrounded by an attractive bluebell wood.  There is a good grass snake and slow worm population, some of which were in evidence during our visit.  One of the areas of the reserve had been very heavily grazed by sheep, part of KWT’s programme to upgrade the grassland, but has left little cover of any sort so that it is of no use to reptiles.  Other areas have retained their character and we had fun turning the tin refuges.  These have been in place for several years and have proved a good source of records for the KRAG database.  The damper lower border provided an array of plants typical of moister habitats and a profusion of interesting insects, we managed to get shots of Chrysolina polista and a scorpion fly.  This area has a pond that unfortunately no longer retains water and Terry suggested some work that could be done to open the area a little and create a new and more effective water body – perhaps as part of the ‘Million Ponds Project’.  The land around Waystrode Manor, which is right on the Kent/East Sussex border, made an interesting walk but didn’t provide any herptile observations.

KRAG field days always turn up something of interest, not necessarily to do with herptiles.  This time at Cowden we stumbled on a group of young male fallow deer and in our car park found a Lagonda.  This was the much loved car of a 79 year old enthusiast who kindly spent 45 minutes telling us about the car’s provenance and explaining the modification he had made that exceeded Aston Martin’s specifications.