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1st Grassie of 2007

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herpetologic2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote herpetologic2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Mar 2007 at 8:11am

 

Yes it is a wee bit high in places - you would hope that the snakes would have found flood free areas of their hibernation areas and of course they may have found other areas to hibernate away from the flood water

Mortality may have happened due to flooding but with the milder weather this may have given the opportunity for the snakes to move....but we wouldnt know until later in the year.

I have found one hibernacula within several hundred acres of farmland down here so there may be other hibernacula in the area I just have to find them - the summer feeding grounds - lower parts of the farm, river floodplain, trout fishing lakes etc are very high in water and so I would expect to find grassies down here in the summer.

Regards

 

 

Jon

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Mar 2007 at 8:13am

Hi Rob, you can't miss it in Essex, I was flying around last week and the standing water in the fields is obvious as are swollen rivers. (makes me wonder why the next day I managed to bog my truck down in a field - should have known better ). Still it did poor down for weeks after Christmas - soon they will be telling us there isn't enough water agian. I've not seen any detrimental effects at any of my sites though.

The weather has been odd for sightings, some days it is warming up very quickly, others it looks right but is actually colder than it appears - maybe this explains the low sightings Rob?

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Peter Vaughan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Mar 2007 at 10:05am

Yes there has been a lot of water about - wellies rather than walking boots for site visits this spring.  But both my local sites are wet heaths and usually fairly wet anyway in the winter.  The two local hiberantion sites I know of are both on slightly higher ground - in the case of the Adders only very subtley so - and were clear of the nearby sheets of water.  And today it was noticably drier.  Not a huge number of sightings this morning - one coiled-up Adder, one Grass Snake (which at first i thought was a stick that looked like it had Grass Snake markings!) and one sub-adult Common Lizard under a tin.  There was intermitant bright sunshine but it was perhaps a bit breezy, with no butterflies out.  First Bee Flies of the year though.

Peter

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzi Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Mar 2007 at 12:43pm
I believe the reservoirs in Devon are full - glory be! Surprisingly the heathland tracks here in East Devon have dried out very quickly recently with all the wind and sun. Very hard walking on many of them in winter as they are such a quag.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robert V Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2007 at 1:20pm

Thanks for getting back guys (and girls!).

It's funny, but every single year is just slightly different in some way and patterns seem to take about a dozen years before they emerge.

Personally i don't believe all this global warming clap trap (Earth's cycles more like) but I was hoping that this year with the warmer winter we might see lots of Grassies by now, still, as you say gemma, it is sometimes colder than it looks through the window!

R

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herpetologic2 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote herpetologic2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Mar 2007 at 6:42pm

The David Bellamy Climate Change denial award goes to.....

JC

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jimpklop Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Mar 2007 at 7:22pm
haha, In agreement with Robert, Still no pictures?

James
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Robert V Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Mar 2007 at 7:50pm

Jim,

I have a few shots on the camera (on film! old timer) but 8 out of 24 is not very good for the 20th March! Mind you, in 2003, it was saturday March 22nd when all the Grassie balls appeared, so fingers crossed.

As for greenhouse denials; how could you believe it Jon?? It's claptrap mate, just a focus for taxes! They've taxed us to the hilt in every other department, so they have to do this..... It is a FACT, that the tilting cycle of the earths rotation around the sun, brings colder and warmer climates. In fact, we're still technically in an "ice age" and it was far far hotter when the dinosaurs walked the planet. The CO2 in the atmosphere in that era was far greater than it is now, simply because of the lack of plant growth.

If you believe in the 'global warming' scenario, show me the hard evidence, not circumstancial breaking off of some ice flow somewhere. Then tell me for definite that it hasn't got anything whatsoever to do with those Earth's natural cycles......No, thought not!

And..... what was the point of installing catalytic convertors in cars for the MOTs when they only last two years and then still taxing the so called gas guzzlers despite the convertors? exactly.

R.....is for rant!

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote administrator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Mar 2007 at 8:25pm

Blimey Rob you sound like you must own a 4x4

Jon, have you seen the research that is now out for UK climate in the middle ages. It was far hotter than it is now - for hundreds of years. Wasn't down to my Land Rovers then was it? As expected in an interglacial period it then cooled down - now it has risen a little again but when compared to the middle ages it's just a tiny blip.

From some of the stuff I've seen I think Rob is right, the whole thing is a bandwagon. Though I must admit the findings on global dimming have interested me. The theory being that with all those aeroplanes dumping vapour trails into the atmosphere it causes a certain amount of cooling by blocking the suns rays. This leaves me to conclusion that I should therefore fly as much as possible to cool the planet down - well until the next ice age comes.

Donations to the Gemma Fairchild AvGas fund appreciated  (You now know it will save the world).. (probably not)

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote herpetologic2 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Mar 2007 at 6:25am

Your in denial glasping at anything that will keep the status quo and who wouldnt (Gemma & Rob)

Thanks caleb

 

Jon

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