Kenilworth Common Reptiles

Preview of featured illustration from forthcoming Kenilworth Common interpretation project

Lacerta vivipara / Zootoca vivipara - the Common Lizard, also known as the Viviparous Lizard, viviparous meaning the female incubates the eggs inside her body and gives birth to live young.

Look for them on top of logs, sun basking in spring and autumn on open ground. You need a keen eye, they’re small and fast. Hibernates in burrows under logs and rocks in the cold, usually emerging in April. The external ears without flappy bits, blunt head and tail are adapted for a snug fit away from the elements and predators, a vital ability if you’re poikilothermic. They’ve been on the planet longer than snakes.

Kenilworth Common

Kenilworth Common LNR

Common Lane, Kenilworth

OS Grid Ref: SP 297 730

One of my locals!

Neolithic lowland heath, imperial gravel pits, mountain bikes, reptiles, glow worms and recreation.

The Common lays on ancient ground but the trees are relatively young and only started to grow just over a century ago. We see them today reclaiming The Odibarnes, a once large area of open lowland heath with common grazing. Like so many of our remaining historic habitats, it is man-made. Created by land cleared and exhausted through exploitation of woodland resources and over grazing, impoverished and abandoned by the early agriculture of Neolithic man.

As a child the common was playground, all mysterious nuns and nature. Divinity and imagination inspired fantasy scenarios involving quests to find the scared yet elusive serpent, to begat magical powers. My tracking skills at the time were fairly poor so I never did get to see the elusive adder and to this day, remain a mere ordinary mortal.

The original interpretation boards on the reserve are over 20 years old. It's odd how things turn out, I remember seeing them in storage at Brandon Marsh when I was a conservation trainee. Then, I had no idea it would me who has the great pleasure of replacing them with updated versions. The design and artwork is complete and will soon be going to press, installation is due by the end of 2012.

One of the original boards soon to be replaced

Natural England - Access to Nature

Natural England - Access to Nature

Andy Tasker

What a landmark year 2012 has been for Britain, the Queens Diamond Jubilee, the London 2012 Olympics and The Wildlife Trusts Centenary. 

This year also marked a personal milestone, twenty years ago I joined Warwickshire Wildlife Trust as an employment trainee and it was life changing. Ever since then I've been lucky enough to have the lions share of interpretation projects throughout Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull. 

More sadly, this year also saw the loss of Dr. Andy Tasker, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust's Chief Executive Director. Andy was the driving force behind the Trust for over thirty years, from when he became the youngest Chief of Council in 1982 and then the first paid Trust director in 1988 until his premature retirement in 2010. His achievements and sheer inspiration were extensive and remarkable, within the Trust and beyond.

His death in January came as a great shock and sadness to all who had the privilege to know him. He influenced my life so fundamentally, I'm only doing what I do now because of Andy. I just wish I'd told him that. 

Andy Tasker and David Attenborough. Brandon Marsh 1992. 

Photograph reproduced with kind permission from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust

      

Welches Meadow Local Nature Reserve

Welches Meadow LNR

Radford Road, Leamington Spa

OS Grid Ref: SP 325 657

The reserve flanks the River Leam, a traditional flood meadow in existence for nearly 200 years. 

Many locals remember skating on it in winter, many moons ago. How lovely to return myself, on a bright crisp February morning, a mere thirty years later, no longer a teenager. I remember lazy slow summers along the river path, the deep soft buzz of dragonfly and silent Demoiselle. Open grassland, birds flock. Some things don’t change.

Met some lovely WWT volunteers, working hard to maintain eager bushes keen to colonise. 

The design work for the interpretation panel is complete and currently in sign manufacture production. It will be installed shortly. In the meantime, here is another preview illustration. The reserve is managed using traditional methods dating back to medieval times. The willow trees along the river bank are pollarded, as seen here. A means to maintain growth and longevity.

Willow Pollard and wagtails