Posted: 11 June 2010 at 11:55pm | IP Logged

I would agree with you.

The site has a great number of aquatic environments and plenty of ideal terrestrial environments for herps, however, as you say they are extremely sparse on the site. I have seen crested newt and grass snakes there occasionally but so far no common frogs or common toads although I'm told they are occasionally found. The number and apparent quality of water bodies there suggests that they should exist in healthy quantities -- but they don't.

I have on the other hand visited a couple of ponds away from the bit that is a SSSI nature reserve (i.e. on open pasture with a few hedgerows) and found thousands of frog and toad larvae in ponds. Other people visiting the site have commented on this mystery.