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Where do they come from?

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Suzy View Drop Down
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    Posted: 14 Jul 2016 at 11:58pm
Rob re your brother's experience with EN, I had similar but on a much smaller scaler - one male GCN. I will abide by the rules, but they're not exactly encouraging!
Maybe I don't want to know what's in my drains if it is likely to be heaps of spiders Cry
Suz
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Robert V View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robert V Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 Jul 2016 at 7:43pm
Well the technology is certainly available. I just received a CCTV drain survey (I was looking to at a subsidence problem to a house) and the cctv recording showed the cracked drain to be home to loads (and I mean loads) of false widow spiders!!

Now where there are spiders... etc

You could set above getting a drain survey Suze and seeing if the camera bumps into any of your herps.

Incidentally, has anyone heard this before. My brother originally contacted EN (its predecessors) years and years ago to tell them about his farm pond and GCN's.

They've been down many times since to check condition etc. this time however they told my brother that they had DNA'ed his ponds population.

But they then seemed to issue a thinly veiled threat and said that..."if any of the ponds population showed up as sold, it would be my brother who would be prosecuted"!!!!

Now pardon me. But had he not informed them in the first instance they would never have known (pond on private land) and should anyone have the intent to get at the pond (for whatever reason) my brother shouldn't have to erect six foot fences and razor wire to protect it.

How not to win friends - these organisations have no idea.

R
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jul 2016 at 10:48pm
Rob yes I have underground pipes in the front garden, however I don't tend to see toads in the front garden, but frogs go in the pipes. Mind you the pipes aren't easy to access (for man or toad) so not sure the pipes would be strongholds for frogs or toads.
As you might have read I had a GCN male in the pond earlier in the year. Whilst this was wonderful it was not a complete surprise, as I'd seen one under a plant tub a few years ago (and was the reason I put in a larger pond). I didn't understand that GCNs like really large ponds, so my large, but not huge, garden pond was a well intentioned mistake to attract them - which worked! What I'm trying to say is there seems to be a mystery to how some of these creatures arrive where they do and thrive.
I do think some of these mysteries would make good research topics.
Suz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Iowarth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Jul 2016 at 6:58pm
A freind of mine works for BT and while carrying out a survey lifted one of their hatches. Although there was no apparent access available, the first thing he saw was three Great Crested Newts staring at him. A later search with a license-holder found it was teeming with all three newt species. The assumption is that somewhere along this stretch of conduit there must have been a break of some sort allowing both water and newt ingress!(and yes, mitigation is in progress - in thsi case BT came up trumps). I would say underground drains and gullies as suggested by Rob are a piece of cake by comparison!

All the best
Chris
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Robert V View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robert V Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Jun 2016 at 6:01pm
Suze,

have you got any surface water gullies in your garden. I think a lot of these underground drains are home to our toads, frogs and newts but how they get out again is anyones guess

R
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Apr 2016 at 11:31pm
Apart from my neighbour's pond, I don't think there are any more hereabouts that these toads could originate from. Occasionally I see a toad in one of my ponds but I've never seen spawn. I know it isn't easy to see, but you'd think I'd see the tadpoles if it hatched.
There are lots of toads in the garden though, even the compost heaps are popular, and the Coroline covers are summer hideouts.
I envy you your breeding toads Chris!
Suz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Iowarth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Apr 2016 at 11:14pm
My pond is probably larger than many garden ponds but at about 15ft long by 10ft wide (maximum dimensions, irregular shape) it's a lot, lot smaller than a typical toad pond. Nonetheless, we had toad spawn in it the first Spring after I built it. Some 25 years later I have to stroll around my garden on mild damp Spring evenings helping masses of toads through our close fitting gates coming to spawn. My best ever total account was around 50 a few years back.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tom Omlette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Apr 2016 at 9:56pm
last autumn i found half a dozen babies that couldn't have been any more than a month or so old around the edge of my garden pond. there are no other pounds around and so it seems most likely that they were spawned in mine. but i saw no adults or spawn and it is a tiny garden pond. keeping an eye out this spring but nothing so far.
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Suzy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 Apr 2016 at 1:16pm
Found my first toad of the year this morning. I didn't have the camera, but it was a 50p sized toad under a Coroline cover. Alongside it was a last year's slow worm young. Nothing under the other covers.
Suz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AGILIS Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jul 2011 at 12:02pm
Suzy its just great they can survive in urbanized districts keith
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