Sand Lizards - 11th April

The weather was mostly sunny with a cool wind. Highlights were Sand Lizard, Woodlark, Dartford Warbler, Crossbill, Raven and Redpolls.

We firstly met at Martin Noble’s house. He breeds Sand Lizards as part of a re-introduction scheme with Natural England. In the inclosures in his garden we saw Wall Lizard and Green Lizard as well as Sand Lizards. He also keeps Pine Marten, Fox, European Tortoises and Pond Terrapins which we saw and he showed us Great-crested Newt, Palmate Newt and Smooth Newt that he had for the purposes of a talk he was giving. A very informative morning. We also saw a Raven over the garden.
After lunch we met at Burbush Hill car park and walked over the road towards Dur Hill. One of the first birds we saw was a Crossbill at the top of a pine tree. It was silhouetted against the sun so we couldn’t see any colour, but we could see the big bill that was crossed at the tips! Further on we saw Stonechat and heard a couple of Coal Tits in the trees. The small area of pine trees also had a Treecreeper and several Chaffinch in it. We got to the area where the Sand Lizards have been released and started to look carefully at the sides of the track. After a short while Peter spotted the first lizard. It was a Common or Viviparous Lizard. A little further up the track and Alan found a male Sand Lizard basking. His green sides showed up well and contrasted with the brown back. At one corner of the release site Emily found another lizard – a Wall Lizard. While some of us were looking at it, others saw a Dartford Warbler fly over the path. We walked back and decided to search the pathways of the release site more carefully. As we made our way there 2 Woodlark flew up and gave us great views. Walking around the site we saw several Slow-worms under pieces of corrugated iron left out for reptiles to bask under, but no more Lizards. We walked back past the Woodlarks and got great views again and we also saw a Linnet. We got quite good views of a Siskin in the pine trees too. As we neared the car park we had great views of a few Lesser Redpoll feeding and singing in pine trees by the old railway track. A great end to a wonderful day.
Simon Curson