heathland reptiles

Grass snake. It really was worth the effort. Stayed put at 1m even after my retreat.



Male adder...I didn't squat down fast enough on sighting this one, he must have spotted me at 3meters against the sky. Originally thought this a female, but brown background colouration is due to emerging from hibernation. Paler coloration will occur after sloughing of skin.


Young adder, approx 1yr old. A very willing model allowing macro phtography down to a few cm due to it being...... dead

As it was March, sunny and the wind had dropped, it looked ideal for an attempt to spot some reptiles at the local heath. Kick-off was at the civilised crack of 10:30 (supposedly the best time to start snake watching), but after 3 hours of intense, quiet, slow searching I had a grand total of zero reptilians. Maybe it had something to do my magnetic attraction to dog walkers….’oooo he could run around you all day! – you’ve got a new friend there’ etc etc. I really must remember to pack that RPG7 for my new friends to catch in future. A bit despondent I considered kicking it into touch but after the regulation mars bar fix I gave it one last surge as you ‘don’t get owt fer nowt' as they say in my native Cheshire.

And suddenly there it was. The grass snake was patient and obliging down to 1 meter on full macro zoom on the FZ7. The adders were a bit more difficult, but finally two females were found. One small reddish adder seemed particularly un-shy, but after returning and finding this particular snake in exactly the same position I started to get a bit suspicious....and after finally poking it with a stick it was confirmed seriously dead. At 21.5cm, it is probably 1 year old. From the position it was in it didn’t look like a predator or human was to blame. Maybe it didn’t quite have the energy levels to survive hibernation and died trying to gain some warmth outside.