Tuesday 30th.March 2010

Volunteering up on the Greensand Ridge has had to be put on hold , as my Warden has just had a back operation , and will be out of action for several weeks . But , it has given me the time to spend on the photos that have been waiting to be sorted for some time now . I spent most of yesterday and this morning , getting to a point where it felt as if my eyes were popping out of my head . A bit of brightness after a grey morning , was the ideal opportunity to get out , and I headed for the hills to look for reptiles . I mentioned a while back that at this time of year , as the Adders come out of hibernation , they just lie about together . This shot shows four males doing just that , three on the left and one in the bottom right corner , only thing was , that a large Slow Worm was already lying out , when the bottom left Adder decided on the same spot , and just used the Slow Worm as a cushion . As can be seen , the Slow Worm was almost as large as the male Adders . A bit further on , I came across this 'doughnut' , but only after looking through binoculars , realised that it was in fact two male Adders , coiled up together . If you look , there are two heads , one in front of the other . When I passed a while later , they had warmed up , and had separated . I found another pair , with the second one's head in line with the first's body ( top left ) , the first's head obvious to the right . In all , I found 14 males lying out , but already , the brief window in the weather was breaking down , with spots of rain in the wind .
On the way back home , I made a quick visit to Keston Ponds , and managed to find my first flowering Lesser Celandine of the year . Just two pairs of Mandarin and a second pair of Canada Geese seemed to be the only changes , apart from this strange , almost black duck . It was escorted everywhere my a drake Mallard type , so would assume it was a female . It looked even stranger when the pair left the water over on the far bank , towering over the male .
To finish , three of the recently taken shots that I have been working on .

The female Stonechat , that was constantly pursued by two male at Ashdown Forest . A Common Snipe , from along the track at Elmley RSPB , Sheppey .
And a comical pair of Oystercatchers , again at Elmley , that were marching together and calling constantly , and reminding me of the 'Ministry of Funny Walks' sketch , from the Monty Python series , many years ago .