RAUK's a Herp a day!

nicely done ben!

Rather a nice shot - most adder shots appear to be posed, simply because that is how they normally behave. A bit different this time. I doubt that there would be much suggestion of carrying young yet - we're only just in the mating season still. Probably just irritated as being harassed by either a) too many males or b) human beings!Still a nice shot by virtue of being a tad unusual.

Chris wrote: 'I doubt that there would be much suggestion of carrying young yet - we're only just in the mating season still.'

...unless she is carrying her young over Chris, which is something we have speculated about before, along with the same possibility in smooth snakes.  Nigel Hand, who works with adders in the Malverns, found a dead female in Feb 2013 which had full grown young in her when she was dissected. 

@tbonexsoccer - if you spot her again, could you get some pics from above if poss, so we can see her shape?  Cheers!

Thanks for that, hard to tell being a stocky snake, but the first one certainly made her look plump!  I've seen quite a few today that look similar, so will start a new thread on this under 'adder'.

Hey folks, this thread's gone quiet! Something to keep us going then...

Sandwiched between a recently mown churchyard and a disused canal and discretely nestled among the attractive yet deadly poisonous, Hemlock Water Dropwort Oenanthe crocata plants, were 3 good old-fashioned (weathered, corrugated) tins 3 or 4 metres apart. They've been there for a few years and always yield results in moderate-to-good conds, but this visit brought my biggest crop yet:

8 Grass Snakes and 6 Slow worm.

The scene L-R:





Adult and juv Grassies:






Cheers

Edited by Liz Heard - 09 May 2015 at 11:38am