A fantastic day

I had a awesome day yesterday with my 2 friends, exploring the heathland of Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex, it was very sunny, almost not a cloud in the sky, but was quite gusty at times.
That did not stop us finding 2 Grass snakes, the first one i missed but the second one, at the same location was a fairly decent size (around 2 and a half ft) she had a very triangular head which i have recently learned is a good way to tell females from males.
After the grass snakes we found a female adder under a tin, also at the same location, which was a new locality for me, always nice when you go somewhere new and find stuff!
Then into Surrey for a male smooth snake, i think we would have found more if we knew where all the tins were!
Then back to Hampshire where we found some newts and a male sand lizard.
After dropping our friend off me and Mark (Arvensis) returned home and did a quick check of the local cemetery where we found a few slow worms.
 If i had seen the common lizard i would have made all 6 native reptiles in one day, which is quite a rare thing for me to do.
I think its only happened once or possibly twice, to me that is, usually i always manage to miss something!
Mark and James did see some common lizards and we all saw a lizard that we could not positively id, it could have been a common lizard, or a female sand lizard, it was very fast, so i may have seen all 6 but because i cant be sure i'm saying i saw 5 out of 6.
Mark is the only person who can say with confidence he saw all 6! but I must remember how very lucky i am to live where i do and 5 out of 6 isn't bad really, considering how windy it was, if it had been a little less gusty I'm sure we would have seen much more.
Still determined to see a common lizard i cycled to a place about a mile away, where i know there are common lizards, adders and slow worms but i was clutching at straws really, it was gone 6pm, the sun had disappeared behind a bank of cloud and it was still rather gusty.
The felts and tins were all cold but i still checked a few of them and i was treated to a melanistic adder, which was very sluggish and didnt hiss or even move at all even when i had my lens almost on top for a photo, i just laid the felt gently back on top of him. or her hard to tell with melanistics!
All in all it was a great day and i hope we go out again soon for another attempt of seeing all  6 in one day, my next goal is not just seeing them but getting video and photos to, i did manage to get  photos of 5 reptile species, and one newt which I am not sure if its s smooth or a palmate, it does have a filament at the end of its tail and webbed back feet so i think that means its most likely a Palmate.
Here is a selection of my best photos from the day















Happy herping!



Edited by Ophiuchus - 04 May 2011 at 1:29am

Great pics & a lot variety makes a good day keith