Adder Combat

With a warm day forecast I headed to the local forest for some reptile study.

The male adders have now all sloughed, so now is the time for mating. I managed to find a female basking early in the morning. Further away were several males also basking.


male with flattened body to maximise warming


another male searching for female

The prize - a large and beautiful female basking under a birch. Note the female characteristics of brown central stripe and lack of black rostral (nose) scale outline. Tail is also less tapered than a male.

Returning later, a male was courting her and defending his prize against all interlopers. Over the next hour he fought off 4 or 5 other males. They appeared to try to rush him almost at once, but he was up to the task, mostly a lunge and fast chase would be enough. Only one male of similar size gave him any trouble and this produced several bouts of the famous 'dance of the adders' where the two males raise half their bodies off the ground in an attempt to push the rival down.

The challenger appears, probably drawn by the females scent

Stand-off. These two males were quite evenly matched. Current top snake on the right

Combat commences.

The victor returns to the female and moves over her in a stange, jerky fashion

The males are so preoccupied that I sat amongst them without disturbance. One male slithered under my legs. It was one of those magical times when, just for a moment, you are accepted into another world.

Common lizards were also about, including what I think was a male judging by the broken vertibral stripe (below). He basked then departed on a short hunting trip.


male? common lizard

Sloughing Adders

The first post-slough adders were around today, infact one male was still getting rid of the tail-end of his skin. The new skin looked truely spectacular and shiny in the sunlight.


Spectacular male with female just visible



The same large and well marked male checking for interloping males

He had found a female, who was well hidden, with only her rear few coils in the sun and head hidden, but peering out of a grass tussock. The male spent some time patrolling and returning to check on the female.

Also two grass snakes here, one basking on the top of some heather.


Grass snake


At another site, the male adders had not yet sloughed, but were quite close to doing so. Several had quite opaque eyes.


Male adder ready for sloughing



Opaque eye scale. The eye scales are included when sloughing occurs.

Most hibernacula found seem to occur at the base of gorse bushes which are quite bushy down to the base. I would guess that this may be due to the warm microclimate and lack of wind, as much as protection from predators.

First Garden Butterflies

A nice male comma in the garden on Monday. He seems to be holding a territory in the rough grassland as he launched himself to intercept another male flying overhead.

There is a wild hop growing in the old hedge here. I must remember to check it for eggs this year, as it is a favoured, but rare food plant.

Also a few Peacocks about...........a Brimstone would be nice.


comma male ready for take off


comma male basking

Over 30 clumps of spawn is now in the pond with a few more added every few days. Major emergence of some kind of mayfly, with one emerging and instantly taking to the wing every 30 seconds.

over 30 clumps of spawn now in the pond

Blow wells and signs of spring

A rare sight this - the ancient blow wells in our local town full to the brim. The anglo-saxon church in the background is on a small, circular enclosure and so the blow well was their source of water and is probably the main reason for the town's origional existence. Sad then that a combination of over-abstraction of ground water, but mostly a poorly-designed drainage system makes this an extremely rare sight.


Apparently once the domain of the mighty great-crested newt, I would guess they are now long-gone, as it is normally nothing but a puddle. Surely a prime candidate for some restoration work on such an important part of the town's history, but no doubt the town council will want to spend the money on planting primulas on the roundabout instead.



once the domain of dragons

Along the river bank, coltsfoot are unfolding their sunny faces to the skies. Spring is here.

Coltsfoot. The absolute lack of other flowers at this time magnifies their beauty.

Alien Invaders

While checking out a local drain for water voles I found this 50m stretch of water fern. The plant is from subtropical America and my book says "carpets still fresh water". This stuff would be a nightmare to get rid of if it got in the nearby clay pits SSSI's - probably impossible to get rid of completely and definitely expensive.




The latest alien to arrive

Judging from the crap people throw in the hedgerows here (it has the unfortunate luck of being next to the council tip - closed on wednesdays where upon people just dump it here instead), I guess someone just emptied their garden pond into the ditch. It's about time alien aquatics like this are simply banned from sale. People are just not responsible enough to be trusted, or maybe slap a tax on all sales of non-natives based on potential costs of erradication. I wonder what else is in there - snapping turtle perhaps?

Amphibian Invasion

Last year, the first spawn clump appeared in my pond. This year it appears that frogs have arrived in force. First appearance around March 8th, and today there are at least 3 females and 15 males, and quite possibly many more hiding in the hornwort.


male and female common frog in amplexus

Two clumps of spawn and around 3 females/males in amplexus, with several wrestling matches ongoing. The females in amplexus had not yet released their spawn and were moving around the pond alot. It could be that they are not happy with their current mate and are searching for one able to wrestle him off.






males waiting hopefully for a successful interception .....

Hopefully some tadpoles will reach metamorphosis this year, but predator numbers are also high in the pond, with several smooth newts present along with many dragonfly larvae, so on the face of it, the chances are not good. Maybe I'll just have to dig them another pond.



A healthy amphibian population with large breeding pond, areas of rough grass, meadow and hedgerow. Can a garden get any better than this?.

Adder Emergence and a Close Shave

The local adders are now emerging from hibernation. They are all males - black stripe on top and diamonds on sides; black-outlined rostral scale (nose); gently tapering tail. At this time of the year males are often mis-identified as females as the background colour is quite brown. The brown background colour should be ignored. They are due to slough their skins soon whereupon the males will become more black and grey.

They are out getting some heat to help sperm development........mating season approaches.

Hope to get some photos of them post-slough (april-ish), along with some females.



At this time of the year, the males are just outside their hibernacula




Check out the smoothly tapering tail




Stripes are quite black in the male




Note the black outline on the rotral scale (nose). Some nice blue flecks on the side of this male.

One of the hibernacula had a rather close shave from the strimmer crew. It looks to me like some mis-communication, as forest enterprise know where the hibernation site is, but the strimmer crew obviously didn't.


hibernacula with damage caused by brash strimmer crew