KRAG members active in the ‘Adders in Decline’ project visited Folkestone Warren on Sunday.  In the distant past the area is know to have supported a strong adder population but there is a dearth of recent records.  
The KRAG visit was at the invitation of the White Cliffs project that will be restoring the habitat to chalk grassland and then maintaining it by extensive grazing with feral goats.  Before that happens there will need to be substantial removal of invasive plants such as Budlea and Japanese Knot weed as well as other scrub.
The walk through the Warren was magical, helped a lot by bright sunshine.  From the accompanying pictures you can see KRAG members in a glade of ferns and walking through the grassland area against the cliffs.  In the medium term, KRAG will be helping the White Cliffs Countryside Project by generating reptile records for the site and advising on reptile sensitive management.  Before long there will be a KRAG field event to help start the recording effort – so that’s something to watch out for! 

On Sunday 16^th November, KRAG members were on the Greensands Ridge near Westerham figuring out site management and next year’s monitoring programme. On checking tin and felt refuges they were surprised to find a grass snake, a slow worm and two adult great crested newts; each under a separate refuge.

The weather was not too bad, 12ºC with a mixture of intermittent sun and light rain. None of these reptiles or amphibians was torpid and on disturbance all moved to conceal themselves.

KRAG were fortunate enough to have Trevor Beebee (president of the British Herpetological Society) as the guest speaker for the first in the winter programme of talks.  A well attended meeting at Kent Wildlife Trust's Tyland Barn were treated to a talk on the impact of the Chytrid fungus and what the implications for amphibian populations might be. 

In a thought provoking talk, members of the audience were invited to challenge preconceived ideas relating to the pandemic and focus on the priorities facing amphibian conservation.

A more detailed report of this talk will be found in the next KRAG newsletter.  Don't forget to become a member and ensure that you receive the next issue.

Whilst turning some of the refugia put down by KRAG on the Greensand Ridge near Westerham in mid-September, I was amazed to find a dark brown, almost black slow worm, under one of the felts.
 
I have never seen one as dark as this before, and wondered if anyone else has found similar. I have returned to the felt a couple of times since, but 'the dark one' was not to be seen.

I was out and about over the last few days checking our reptile monitoring sites and I was amazed by the numbers of slow worms there have been under the roofing felt squares we have laid as refuges.  Under one felt on the North Downs there were too many shiny bodies to count (see photo).  As there is so little bright sunshine at the moment it looks as if the warmth-gathering effect of the roofing felt is supplying a real service to heat hungry slow worms. 

In the slow worm habitats most refuges are sheltering at least one gravid female; it is certainly important for them to keep warm at the moment so that their young can develop quickly and be delivered as soon as possible before hibernation.  The cool summer last year seems to have resulted in some late deliveries although it is not clear what negative impacts this may have had.

But my surprise was not limited to just the number of slow worms.  At one site on the Greensands Ridge I came across the largest (but not the longest) slow worm I have ever seen.  It appears to be a gravid female but without the distinguishing dark flanks and thin dorsal stripe of the adult female (and sub-adult males and females).  Instead it had a more or less uniform straw colour and a girth nearly double that of any gravid female I have encountered (see photos 2 and 3).  Is this some strange mutant?  Have you seen one like this?