Tuesday 30 March 2010

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 .

4 comments:

Warren Baker said...

Nice ''snakey'' photo's greenie, ive yet to find an adder on my patch, some brightness would help :-)

Phil said...

No Adders at New Hythe either as far as I know but I have found the occasional Grass Snake in the past.
Nice post Greenie and I second Warren's point about some brightness needed.

Ken. said...

Hi Greenie.
You certainly Adder very good time seeing all those Viper's.
Nice shot of the Oystercatcher's piping.

Anonymous said...

45 years on and i`ve never seen an Adder, anywhere.