21-23 North Road, Hertford, Hertfordshire SG14 1LN - Tel: 01992 552407, mail: reception@jonesandsons.co.uk

Establishing the presence or absence of reptiles is the fundimental step in progressing a project that has been identified as providing suitable habitat.

 

Reptiles hibernate and are 'cold blooded', requiring warmth to make them active. This means that the survey needs to take place after the colder weather in the spring through to the early autumn and avoiding the very hot weather of midsummer. In practical terms cost effective survey effort needs to take place between mid April and the end of September. Surveying earler or later than these times normally results in wasted effort and increased costs.

 

The quality of the survey is important also. Jones & Sons deploy metre square sheets of "Onduline", a black fibrous corrugated roofing material. The thermal properties of the "Onduline" are far superior to both the classic corrugated iron sheets or the 1F roofing felt. Our sheets are also twice the recomended size providing a better potential catch rate and being made of "Onduline" are re-usable producing less land fill.

 

All the sheets are numbered so that as they are laid out across the site their position can be GPS'd for later plotting of the recorded data.

 

The sheets are left to bed down for 7 days and then inspected over the following 7 - 10 days of suitable weather conditions to see what is hiding underneath them or basking on top.