More of my missing Adders

Sounds like a good day Gemma !. I had no such luck yesterday . I went searching early evening ,(About 6ish) and saw nothing at one of my prime spots.  I did recieve a text just a little while ago this morning from my Brother, " female adder basking near the path at Wisley".

I'd like to see a picture of that large grass snake you saw , it's been quite a while since i've seen a biggy.

Take care,

Alan

Now the weather man said sunny today.. hmmmm pored down in Surrey all afternoon, no snakes, but did see a gorgeous brown owl, I guess it was about 12" tall, saw it in flight as I disturbed it whilst looking for cover from the rain, uniform brown, slightly lighter chest, would that be a Tawny owl in this area????

Hi Alan,

It literally flew from one tree to the adjacent one under cover of the canopy, barely a wing beat, picked a good tree too, kept the rain off for ages  Was a little larger in flight than a Barn Owl - certainly made my day worthwhile.

Saw  a couple of Barn Owls around Havering way whilst out on my GCN survey nights last month also.

I'll do my best to sum up my observations down the years. The site is on Hindhead, I think a large enough heath not to give the precise location away.

Around 1983 my brother-in-law, then one of the woodmen on the common created a largish pond in a boggy area with low species count. Interested in native herps he cleared the surrounds of birch and placed piles of sticks and bracken specifically for snakes.

Within a couple of years 7 of the commonest species of reptiles and amphibians were to be found close to the pond and in an adjacent meadow, including a large number of Grass Snakes and Adders, I do not recall a bias in the sex ratios for the adders at that time. Observations were on holidays and day trips so amounted to little more than sightings. I recall often seeing both Natrix and Berus basking together, neo adders, often in company with larger snakes, and generally the site being a place where one could not fail to see snakes.

Down the years I continued to visit, slowly I realized that I no longer saw the adders and common lizards, though slow-worms and grass snakes were still abundant.

It is only this year IÆve had the time to find what happened to the adders, discovering the SE facing slope and realizing it could be the place they had moved to.

IÆve not yet located the hibernation bank, though likely places have been noted, a bank runs all the way down the side of the valley and around the back of the pond.

This years sightings have amounted to Grass Snakes still around the pond, and on the slope, 3 adders, 2 female 1 male, all within a just a few square feet of each other on the bracken slope, though IÆve carefully searched IÆve yet to find any others. (I would note though I've not yet had an ideal day, it's either been too wet or too hot so far and iv'e not been down on a day with showers and sun breaking, but this week looks hopeful)

The site is as you describe now with the green bracken having started to rise over the last week or so. ItÆs still easy to get around though as a group of Deer frequent the slope and there are obvious runs that can be followed whilst observing for snakes, so IÆll continue observation for the rest of this season and hopefully be able to get an early start next year to get a clearer picture of the population.

The area adjacent to the pond has changed, birch has encroached, the bracken piles are gone that provided open basking sites (though even 20 years on you can see where they were placed), and later in the year it becomes a forest of bracken. The shading is very noticeable, as 20 years ago it was a string of sun-traps all around the pond, now only 1 or 2 patches of ground catch the sun and this is where I still observe the Grass Snakes.

Gemma , Tony ,

I know that my whole family would be there .We all thoroughly enjoyed our pond mission round the local school.

Alan