Enjoying The Sun

With the recent glorious sunshine, the reps have been soaking up the UV's.
Here are a few pics....

Beware of Blackbirds.......with the ground being hard and worms hard to come by, my local blackbird sneaked in and grabbed a Podarcis while the cover was off. She escaped by dropping her tail!



Laudakia stellio x brachydactyla

Juvenile Physignathus lesueurii

Female Timon pater


Male Timon pater

Male & Female Clemmys guttata

Male Mauremys caspica

Female Emys orbicularis

Rana temporaria

It's Mayfly Time

What a difference a week makes, i fished this Shropshire river last week and struggled for a few fish, as the river is low and clear. However yesterday, with similar weather conditions the fishing was very good. The key to this change was the annual appearance of the Mayfly, which were hatching all afternoon.

Various Mayfly patterns were thrown at the trout with moderate success, but after tying on a Stimulator fly i had a run of beautifully marked fish.

Mayflies tend to make the bigger fish less wary, so with stealth and careful casting, these small rivers will reveal some fine fish.

This time last year i caught fish at Mayfly time with a Balloon Caddis pattern so maybe a perfect Mayfly pattern is not necessary.

A Good Afternoon

Today i had an enjoyable afternoon fishing on one of my favourite shropshire rivers. Although the water was low and clear, it fished well with plenty of trout taking a size 16 copper tungsten-head pheasant tail nymph, tied by fellow blogger Mick.



The nymph was as usual, fished under a Klinkhammer pattern, but only a couple of trout fell to the dry fly.



It is surprising the head of trout these small rivers hold, and this time, a brace of chub and a perfect plump roach.

I am not sure what this c**p was leaking out of the pipe.

Teme Trial

The river Teme is more renown in its middle reaches as a prolific coarse fishery, but it does hold grayling and trout.

On arriving today fish were rising in the steadier swims and through polaroids i could see that some were chub but there may have been be trout as well.

The rise was short lived and i only had time to cover one fish and it was a trout, which took a hares ear nymph, fished under a dry fly.

After that it was a right struggle, i fished through all likely looking swims with nymphs of various weights to suit depth and pace, and did catch another trout from a fast gulley.

It is still early in the trout season, so i will return in a couple of weeks as there could be plenty of good fish to be caught.

'' There's A Lizard On The Garage Wall ''

So there i was sitting on the patio chatting to the other half, when she looks over my shoulder and says '' theres a lizard on the garage wall! '' I knew April Fools Day was long gone so on looking around there was indeed a Podarcis muralis giving me the stare. We caught her using nets, she showed no fear and am sure ....... recognised me.
On checking the viv i found a corner where the original sealing had broken down or possibly been chewed through by a mouse. Luckily only one lizard had worked its way down through all the logs and dried leaves to find an the way out. This was a wake up call to keep checking vivs for repair and to look for possible escape routes. It was in some sense a lucky break, as two Darevskia unisexularis were due to go in shortly. Had i not found the hole they surely would have been lost.



Below the recaptured Podarcis



Parthenogenetic Rock Lizard Darevskia unisexularis

Making Ready Juvenile Turtle Pond

Had a good clean out of the pond i use to keep juvenile turtles , the dimensions are 2.5m x .75m x . 3m deep. Although this pool is shallow and in full sun, there is no filter, by heavily planting with oxygenator (Elodea sp.), it keeps crystal clear.It is also the home to shrimps, snails, damsel nymphs and tadpoles, which all help to maintain a healthy environment for the turtles. The surface has some shade with duckweed and the leaves of a tiny water lily.



Turtles hibernate in here every winter, so to stop it freezing up, it is covered with a double layer of thick bubble wrap. In persistant cold such as last winter, i will use a pond heater occasionally.
This pool is covered in 50mm square strong mesh to keep predators out, especially a visiting heron. The mesh is bent, so as to give some height over the two basking logs.



I set up three tubs for putting out the juveniles first, so they can 'harden off ' as they have been kept in a warm garage over the winter. Water temperatures in the tubs can reach 20 deg C during sunny days presently, but cool down rapidly at night.

Pondweed and a basking spot, was put in each tub and water to a depth of about 200mm. These will be covered in mesh and will get plenty of sunlight.

Finishing Touches

Finished off the interior of the 2m x 1m x 2m high terrarium, by mixing in a bag of play sand and placing some large stones around the entrance to the underground hibernacula.When piling stones up, make sure that non can slip and damage an animal, silicon sealant can be used to hold stones in place.

This area will soon become the home of hunting spiders and will warm up in the sun to become a spot for basking . A few heather and lavender plants were then added, plus another log in front of the mesh as another basking zone. A cat litter tray of water for drinking/bathing will be placed just inside the access door(easy to keep clean).

Also topped up my other viv/terrarium with plenty of sand and planted some heather and thyme.