Advice sought regarding Great Crested Newts

Deb London · #1 (**permalink**) 12-09-2010, 12:39 PM

Clueless from London seeks constructive advice.

I was working with a small volunteer group today. I was relocating spoil from a dig a few weeks ago. A newt appeared on my spade of boulder clay. Someone noticed another on the spoil heap.

Using common sense and a very limited knowledge, I managed to persuade the group that these were Great Crested Newts. Which I am now convinced they were, with a little help from Google. I have no photos, knowing a little about the law surrounding these matters. The newt was immediately replaced after identification.

Work carried on enlarging a seasonal, mainly dry, pond in the vicinity. We, as always, were instructed where to walk i.e. not on the vegetation, keeping to the visible clay soil. No GCNs had been reported in this pond before. I have seen small newts from a rescue attempt at this pond in the summer and I never noticed anything out of the ordinary. So I would be completely OK with this work, if I hadn't made the discovery that I did.

Questions. Should we have carried on working on the pond? Would it be better if one of us was licensed for GCNs? Should I get off my bottom and get a licence, or is this difficult to achieve? Is there anything else we should consider?

Constructive advice please, preferably from a licence holder and/or someone with experience.

Thanks,

Deb

The spoil heap.

Two GCNs have buried themselves somewhere in the middle of this.

Dogghound · #2 (**permalink**) 12-09-2010, 01:07 PM

You should stop working on this pond and consult natural england first to be sure. You can get a license for an indivdual job. You are not allowed to cause disturbance to a site with GCN presence. I do a lot of pond restoration and creation work although the consultancy I work for sorts out the licensing. You can carry out work to a pond outside of the GCN season (when they are hibernating) as long as you limit disturbance to potential hibenacula etc this can be done without a license. Managing terrestrial habit is usually done without a license too. Licenses are mainly used when trapping, moving or directly disturbing the newts.

Are there other ponds in the area? is the spoil from this pond? are you planning on doing further habitat management on this pond?

Deb London · #3 (**permalink**) 12-09-2010, 01:35 PM

Hi Dogghound,

Thanks very much for the reply.

Yes, there is a line of very interesting ponds in the reserve (one known to have GCNs confirmed as breeding; this pond was surveyed during the summer). The spoil was from the pond we worked on today, but left there from previous work. I'm not sure at the moment what the project is in the coming weeks.

I need to quiz our leader a bit. Sounds like I don't have to rush out and get a license. Am I correct in thinking that the breeding season is March-June (internet search)? I'm guessing they will not be hibernating yet. But to be honest, I don't know a lot about them.

My guess, having visited this pond as it was drying up, is that it is too small for GCNs, and the ones found today were from the 1200 or so discovered during the survey of the GCN pond. This is an educated guess on my part. BUT the reserve is only 90 acres or so, so wherever we work they could have moved to. They had a fantastic year if the numbers are anything to go by. But if luck wasn't on my side today, I could have killed one of them. Hence the concern.

I need to think lots more about this matter. And get more information and advice.

Thanks again,

Deb

Dogghound · #4 (**permalink**) 12-09-2010, 08:13 PM

The breeding season is over yes. However depending on the stage of their development newts may be in ponds or on land (most will be on land now) they will not start to hibernate for another few weeks to a month. What you usually get with GCN is one main breeding colony and several smaller breeding colonies in surrounding ponds.

If you need any advice on habitat creation etc or any other questions on GCN just ask or PM me. The nature of your work does not sound like its directed at newts but as I say I would check first. A lot of my work is more direst so licensing etc is required.