Ouze Estuary Project

Giles is an EcologicaI Surveyor and one of the projects he works on is the Ouze Estuary Project. They are moving all the protected wildlife from some meadows so that they can be developed. I got up early to go Newt catching with him. He uses drift fencing to direct the amphibians into pitfall traps where they are collected and then relocated to an area within the project that is not being developed. MainIy they are looking for Great Crested Newts but Giles moves Lizards Toads (herpetafauna) & anything other than insects. On this morning we found 3 sub-adult female Great Crested Newts & one very fat Common Lizard. The Lizard had recently lost its tail & you could see the new one growing! We also came across some Fox cubs with a fresh Rabbit carcass but merely caught glimpses of them before they hid. They were clearly having a good time before we desturbed them by the noise they were making. After Giles released the last Newt we went home for a fryup.