Posted: 10 February 2006 at 10:54am | IP Logged

Hi Suzi, the best way of locating hibernaculums is to.. eer find adders that are lying out at this time of year!  Went round our local adder site yesterday, none out on a known hibernacula despite the sunny weather (often they are banks or otherwise prominent features.. sometimes they are not) . They'll be out within the next week I suspect as air temperatures rise.  

It's not a waste of time, it is easier to check known hibernation sites, but we can only find these by spending hours searching and seeing nothing at this time of year, just remember your not the only one daft enough to be out there and very often hibernation areas are not too far away from the usual haunts of females in particular. Still the sun has been lovely and at least we'll know when they do start to show that we are observing the early guys coming out of hibernation

So who's going to be first with a piccy this year?

Posted: 11 February 2006 at 5:39am | IP Logged

Well Gemma

I am already checking my known adder haunts to no avail though as the ground is still frozen at night - so the sun although warm takes a while to thaw the ice - fingers crossed I have seen adders out down in Southampton last year on the 20th February so in the next week I would have hopefully have seen my first male adders....

they are very easy to find down here as they tend to lay out in the grass at the base of trees and bushes....I need to get a private landowners permission to see the main areas for the adder which is outside of a SSSI...

I am also working on three adder sites for my work so I may just have a chance of getting the first picture confidence thats what it is all about!

Regards

JC

Posted: 14 February 2006 at 10:29am | IP Logged

Well they are out! One day earlier than last year. 6 males at 13:40 in their usual spot at the local reserve I'm not allowed to mention.

Very brief visit after abandoning shopping at Morissons to get camera and go when sun broke out in Essex this afternoon.

Merv is complaining that he wants his dinner now, so I'll just post a quick piccy  (the other piccies were not too good anyway, early season excitement led to severe camera shake and for some reason the subjects wouldn't sit still)

Still nice to see them after the long winter, and at least one old friend was out from last year too

Posted: 14 February 2006 at 10:41am | IP Logged

Gemma

that is excellent news I will put the word out to other recorders in Essex to see if their adders are appearing aswell - Peldon, Mersea Island, Hadleigh Epping etc

You have started off on a higher number than last year - which is good I think - 14th Feb - thats the earliest recorded so far in Essex isnt it?

Jon 

Posted: 14 February 2006 at 10:43am | IP Logged

I missed th opportunity to get out today I will definitely be out tomorrow......

JC

Posted: 14 February 2006 at 11:10am | IP Logged

Hi Jon, this is my earliest record for Essex, last year was 15th February.

This was a higher count, last year first sighting was of 3, all were mature adults today so I'm not sure if there is any significance in the numbers other than luck to find a good number out at the same time. I would probably have had more records but it really was a rushed trip to where I was mostly likely to find snakes before having to leave.

Hopefully will have some from Kent in the next couple of days

Posted: 28 February 2006 at 1:26pm | IP Logged

Hi, went to my fave patch today, camera in hand, full of hope of getting some Berus pics to share. nice and sunny here this morn, unfortunatly no luck again  every time the wind blew it rustled the brown wintered fern, bit of a tired neck now from checking every noise. any one had more fruitfull results over the past few days. very envious of your early sighting Gemma

                                Lucym

Posted: 28 February 2006 at 5:28pm | IP Logged

Still nothing from my neck of the woods (Surrey/Hants. borders). Although this thing called 'work' keeps gettting in the way of likely days, and the weekends are cold, wet or snowy !

I think this weekend is likely to be a blow-out too....but you never know. It won't stop me looking