Afternoon Adders
Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2011 9:01 pmFinding myself unemployed and with time on my hands, I have been out herping some new sites this week. The first was an afternoon visit to a long grassy limestone bank where my friend Ben had heard reports of Adders Vipera berus being present.My friend always "jokes" that he can never find anything in my company and today was to be no exception. We seperated and began to walk along the hedges and isolated clumps of bushes searching for basking snakes, I got to the end and walked up the bank thinking "This is a waste of time" when I noticed a small piece of roofing felt. I lifted this and found a Grass snake Natrix natrix and a Slow worm Anguis fragilis curled up together. I tried for an in situ shot but they began to move so I picked them up for a few pics before releasing them (once I had told Ben, obviously).We continued onto the second half of the site where I found another Slow worm beneath a stone.
The site
Marbled white Melanargia galathea
Today I spent an afternoon out with my wife checking a new site following a tip from a friend, it is a large pile of waste from old quarry workings in a local forest. I checked it out on the internet and it stated that Grass snakes and Adders were often seen basking on the slopes.We knew nothing about the layout of the site and so wandered around checking likely looking areas, our first interesting find was this Robins' pincushion, a gall produced by the Dog rose in reaction to eggs being laid in its' buds by the parasitic wasp Diplolepis rosae.
On a bank with a mixture of felled trees,branches and clear areas I soon noticed this.
Walking back from here I checked a deer trail to the side of the path and quickly spotted this Adder sunning itself after an obvious meal.
On some of the fallen trees we noticed several Viviparous lizards Zootoca vivipara
We then moved to an area behind the path where some gorse bushes had been cleared, it was a perfect location and we soon spotted a few Adders soaking up the afternoon sun.One of them saw us and disappeared but the other 2 gave us a few photo opportunites including another with a full belly.
The site
Marbled white Melanargia galathea
Today I spent an afternoon out with my wife checking a new site following a tip from a friend, it is a large pile of waste from old quarry workings in a local forest. I checked it out on the internet and it stated that Grass snakes and Adders were often seen basking on the slopes.We knew nothing about the layout of the site and so wandered around checking likely looking areas, our first interesting find was this Robins' pincushion, a gall produced by the Dog rose in reaction to eggs being laid in its' buds by the parasitic wasp Diplolepis rosae.
On a bank with a mixture of felled trees,branches and clear areas I soon noticed this.
Walking back from here I checked a deer trail to the side of the path and quickly spotted this Adder sunning itself after an obvious meal.
On some of the fallen trees we noticed several Viviparous lizards Zootoca vivipara
We then moved to an area behind the path where some gorse bushes had been cleared, it was a perfect location and we soon spotted a few Adders soaking up the afternoon sun.One of them saw us and disappeared but the other 2 gave us a few photo opportunites including another with a full belly.
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