RAUK - Archived Forum - Slow Worm spotted (and rescued!)

Hi, I live in Essex and last night rescued a Slow Worm!  I wasn't sure at first, but suspected that's what it was, and confirmed this morning when looking at descriptions and pics on the internet.

He (I suspect, from the descriptions) was on his way across the road leading into our culdesac and had been cornered by one of the local cats.  To avoid him getting squished, I stuck the car across the road - hazards flashing! - shoo-ed off the cat and (having summoned up my inner Steve Irwin!) moved the little fella over to the foliage in the direction he was headed.  He quickly slithered into the undergrowth.

Do I need to report this?  I know they're fairly common, but just wondered if it would be of interest to a local conservation group or something?

Regards,

Neil

Hi Neil,

Well done for the rescue!

Not sure where you live but in the town where I live in East Devon slow worms are found in many gardens and cats kill a lot of them. Also many get runover and also minced by strimmers by householders or council contractors cutting bankings.

Neil,

Certainally wouldn't hurt to report it!

I have two names for Essex, maybe drop 'em an email ?

Essex David Scott, Court Hill, Church Lane, Little Leighs, Chelmsford CM3 1PG, 01245 361475, (m) 07970 220743.

Essex Ray Cranfield, 47 Wedgewood Way, Ashingdon, Essex SS4 3AS, 01702 540600, essex_arg@hotmail.com 

Hi Neil, record and report everything! It all helps, the 'common species' are always the ones most under-recorded and from my experience slow-worm distribution is patchy in Essex, I've surveyed a few sites now where they appear to be absent in contrast with Kent where they nearly always seem to be present.

You can use our online record submission form to report Essex sightings, Essex amphibian and reptile group (Ray and Jon C) will receive an automated email when you submit the form if you choose Essex as the county the sighting occurred in.

http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/record_submission_form_rauk.htm

Still havent recieved the record.........

JC

Neil,

I rescued a slow worm this evening but it wasn't quite so dramatic as your rescue. This was at 6.30 and I noticed a blackbird on the lawn and it was watching a large fat slow worm 12" in front of it. Not sure why the slow worm was so out in the open but I scooped it up, examined it and then put it in a compost heap. It had no marks on it at all and cats tend to stick with them when they get one. I didn't want the bird to peck it so put it in a safe place.

Well done Suzi. Not slow worms, but, over recent years i've twice found single grass snakes in my garden (one small; one full adult) & on both occasions i caught & transfered them to a series of large ponds in the private grounds of an abbey a mile or so from where i live & where i know there's a thriving colony of them. If i hadn't done that they'd probably have been cat food! There's enough amphibian deaths & invalids in my garden, thanks largely to cats. I love cats, we've got one, but he's a house cat & a very healthy one too. He only goes out for brief spells, & always under supervision. A friend of mine has two house cats & he does the same as me, & his cats are also perfectly healthy. I just wish there were more house cats. The devastation outdoor roaming cats cause to many herptile populations is dreadful. If your slow worm's got plenty of those small, creamy coloured slugs in the compost heap then he'll be well happy in there...they love 'em! Ya can't do a lot about birds, but just keep an eye on them damn cats. 

Mick,

Yes I know well the problems of cats! I am always rescuing slow worms from them - not all survive.

You might see from my other postings that I deliberately encourage slow worms to use a  large compost heap that I have dedicated to them. This spring they have also moved into 4 other dalek type ones that I have. I had a count up this morning and I had 12 in the large one and 10 between the other dalek ones. Course there may also have been some I didn't see. There were a mix of last year's young, year before that's young and several adults. One of the adults was the fat female I rescued from the blackbird.

Suzi.

Well done! Ya more than doing your bit for ya Slow worms & i'll bet they really appreciate it. You should be well chuffed with yourself! I love the satisfied feeling ya get from having helped create any sort of wildlife refuge. And look at all the resultant young you're getting rewarded with!..Brilliant! When i first moved in to my present home, about 15y'rs ago, i found a dried up string of toad spawn on some rocks up the garden, & i got it in to my head that maybe a desperate female had finally just dumped her spawn there because she couldn't find a suitable pond. I was probably wrong but anyway, i soon built a simple 5ftx3ftx1,3/4ft pond & now that pond & the rocky, woody & wild area all around it (basically half the garden!) heaves with wildlife, & plenty of newts, frogs & toads! The satisfaction i've had over the years since creating my miniture nature reserve has been immense! Oh,..& with a really sturdy, galvanised mesh covering over my pond, cats are stumped! Unfortunately, local cats still sometimes pose a threat to land wandering amphib's but i reckon my cat intrusions are less now than what they were. The cats in my area know me & they're aware i'm almost as good as they are at the stalking game! Just the turn of my kitchen door handle's usually enough to send them fleeing! You should see the poor things go sometimes whenever i manage to creep up behind them with a bit of gravel, earth, or my pump action water gun! Yep!..They remember me alright! And being a bit of a night owl, i'm ready for them then too! But trust me, persistent, cunning shock tactics against pesky cats can pay off. All the best,

Mick.  

lol

all of you fantastic.

Mick,

I too have a pump action water gun for the same reason! I never seem to have it to hand when it's most needed though! Do they make holsters (large!) for them?

Although I love reps and amphibs I am equally keen on birds, badgers, hedgehogs, butterflies, beetles, moths and all sorts really. I moved to this house 15 years ago and developed the garden to be attractive to all sorts of wildlife. The front garden is 35ft deep and about 30 wide  (heaps of grasshoppers here in summer) and the back garden is 200ft long with a sunken stream at the bottom with the streamline edged with mature oaks, hazel and others. I don't have any dedicated wild areas - although the surrounds of the compost heaps are waist deep in weeds deliberately for cover for moving slow worms and possible grass snakes. I have lawned areas that are feeding grounds for birds and badgers and never use chemicals of any sort. I have lots of flower borders and attract a good range of butterflies and crawlies.

The garden has a good number of frogs and toads and there are newts as well. I don't have a pond - a deliberate decision - but I am having one put in this summer because my neighbour's ponds have not had any spawn at all for several years - despite being full of it prior to that. I am hoping the frogs and toads will breed in my pond or else I fear we will lose our population here. If it's the frog disease that is the cause then I guess I will be as unlucky as the neighbour.

Suzi.

I keep my water gun filled up ready, next to the door, & in a bucket in case of leakage. That way, any marauding moggie & i'm out there in a flash, armed & dangerous! Naaa, doubt they make holsters,..cool if they did though! Anyway, i'm from Banbury, what neck of the woods you from? Plenty of varied wildlife wherever you are then? I thought my back garden was big but it's about half the size of yours!,..& you've got a stream too! I'm in to pretty much all wildlife as well but especially herptiles, grasshoppers'n'bush-crickets (orthopterans) & a few other insects. Your weedy area around your compost heaps sounds good to me & clearly quite adequately suits all your Slow worms. Some long grass is great, as not only does it provide cover & prey item habitat, but grass suddenly rustling can also be like a warning bell to herptiles, of maybe a cat, hedgehog, a magpie, or something. Have you got any wood block piles, or log rolls (ideally with bark on) in, or beside that rough area? Hertiles go a bundle on crevicey wood, or thick branch stacks. By the way, excellent that you use no chemicals in your garden. I use the odd animal friendly bit, but basically only against a few weeds on our concreted back yard bit, nowhere else really. As for you putting in a pond, well...if you get half the joy from it that my wildlife (no fish) pond's given me over the years, then you'll be one happy bunny! All our commoner amphib's come to my pond (inc's our 3 newt species / Palmates introduced), it's great! On the frog front, i've had a couple of suspect frog deaths over the past couple of years, but luckily nothing worse than that. Otherwise, populations of everything's fine, & i just keep an eye on it all. Anyway, it's dead late, Suzi, so i'm hittin' the sack! Maybe catch ya later. Toodlepip!

Mick.  

I used to use a water gun to keep the moggies at bay - I have a new option - its is called Ollie and he is a lurcher that can run bloody fast - I can tell you when the cats see this blur of gold heading towards them they are straight out of the garden

Ever since we got Ollie the garden is no longer a cat zone - the good thing is Ollie tends to like chasing things and so he can hear the cats before either of us do during the night - he wines and I then go down stairs to let him out - of course he needs the toilet but really it is because a cat has decided to come into the garden.

I always fumble with the keys on the back door to give the cat a head start and then WHAMP! I let him have it - of course the pond at the bottom of the garden helps to stop Ollie from launching completely over the fence - and the cats are scared out of their wits

I have plenty of frogs which breed each year since I built my small pond - but the tadpoles are totally gone by the late spring - the reason I suspect are the smooth newts

REgards

JC

PS no cat has been harmed due to my rescued lurcher charging up and down the garden - he would kill a cat if he ever caught one though so I am careful about that.

herpetologic2.

Great stuff! Your Ollie sounds in top form then, & he does the trick, but hope he doesn't eventually catch a cat, as i'm well aware just how effective lurchers can be! I don't think getting a dog would go down too well with our house cat though, which we frequently allow out for a while, but only under supervision. So, for now i'll stick with my reasonably effective water gun, although for ages i've been wanting to get one of those anti-cat sensor device things which give intruding cats a harmless frequency zap & send them fleeing. I saw one in operation years ago round a friends dads house & it sure worked alright.

As for your frog tadpoles, yep!, voracious newts love both frog spawn & frog tadpoles (yukey toad poles are usually okay with my newts), so, i'd do as i do each year & extract all frog spawn from the pond & simply put it elsewhere to develop. I use an old baby bath for it which i situate near the pond & i just leave ground standing & with no high weeds, or anything next to it, so no newts can climb in (plus the bath edges are lipped as well), & lastly i put a piece of mesh over it.