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Snake swimming in the sea - is this normal?

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Suzy View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Suzy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jul 2012 at 9:47am
John
By the size of it it sounds like a grass snake. There are posts on this forum about sea swimming snakes and from memory I think they were all adders. There is a photo of one in the sea at Branscombe which will have come off the undercliff, which is thick with them, and crossed the beach into the water. I think the feeling is they are territory seeking - some places abroad regularly have snakes crossing water to islands.
Many years ago my brother tried to catch a large grass snake that was basking on a pebble beach on the shore of Lake Windermere. It escaped by swimming out into the lake but eventually turned and headed back to shore. This was freshwater of course.
Suz
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johnsquires View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote johnsquires Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jul 2012 at 9:04pm
I saw a snake swimming in the sea today, just off a sandy beach on the Norfolk coast. It was only a few metres out, and it swam along on the surface just like how a snake would slither along the ground. It came along, from the North, heading along at about half my walking pace. It was attracting a lot of spectators. It swam past some children who were playing out at approx one metre depth, much to the alarm of their dad!
 
Can anyone tell me if this is normal or common for a snake? Presumably it was just a land snake taking a swim. I don't know much about snakes, but it definitely had a snake-like head, and scales. Could have been a metre long.
 
It was a hot day, maybe 26 degrees C, plenty of sun. The snake wasn't bothered by the people in the sea, or by the seals that were also around. I've certainly never seen anything like it before. Any ideas what it was up to?
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