Afternoon Adders

[Kevin Byrnes]

Finding myself unemployed and with time on my hands, I have been out herping some new sites this week. The first was an afternoon visit to a long grassy limestone bank where my friend Ben had heard reports of Adders Vipera berus being present.My friend always "jokes" that he can never find anything in my company and today was to be no exception. We seperated and began to walk along the hedges and isolated clumps of bushes searching for basking snakes, I got to the end and walked up the bank thinking "This is a waste of time" when I noticed a small piece of roofing felt. I lifted this and found a Grass snake Natrix natrix and a Slow worm Anguis fragilis curled up together. I tried for an in situ shot but they began to move so I picked them up for a few pics before releasing them (once I had told Ben, obviously).We continued onto the second half of the site where I found another Slow worm beneath a stone.
The site






Marbled white Melanargia galathea


Today I spent an afternoon out with my wife checking a new site following a tip from a friend, it is a large pile of waste from old quarry workings in a local forest. I checked it out on the internet and it stated that Grass snakes and Adders were often seen basking on the slopes.We knew nothing about the layout of the site and so wandered around checking likely looking areas, our first interesting find was this Robins' pincushion, a gall produced by the Dog rose in reaction to eggs being laid in its' buds by the parasitic wasp Diplolepis rosae.


On a bank with a mixture of felled trees,branches and clear areas I soon noticed this.










Walking back from here I checked a deer trail to the side of the path and quickly spotted this Adder sunning itself after an obvious meal.





On some of the fallen trees we noticed several Viviparous lizards Zootoca vivipara





We then moved to an area behind the path where some gorse bushes had been cleared, it was a perfect location and we soon spotted a few Adders soaking up the afternoon sun.One of them saw us and disappeared but the other 2 gave us a few photo opportunites including another with a full belly.

[Mario Schweiger]

Great Grass snakes!
No comment on these very nice vipers - not to get others opinion, I´m a vipers boy only

Mario

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Nice!

Keeps me wondering why we never find these "black-and-white" males in Belgian adders...

[Borji Heras]

i like this report , the landscape ,and the adders , i want to see my first european viper this summer

[Matt Wilson]

Very nice findings Kev, does anyone else think that the 'male' is in fact a very pale female? I had a female like this at my local site of 'large' berus last week: https://picasaweb.google.com/mjwilsonhe ... 4128020114
In the summer months in the north of England I virtually never see male berus until they congregate around the hibernaculum usually from early September. On the last check I had 5 large females in a quick search, and haven't seen a male since early May. Or perhaps it just my local site

Matt

[Peter Oefinger]

I´m a vipers boy only

You don't have to feel ashamed about that
Anyhow: very nice pictures

[Mario Schweiger]

Matt,

the last berus is definitively a male! Long, not stepped tail

Mario

[Matt Wilson]

Thanks Mario, what do you think of the specimen on my photo? I thought this to be a female.
Cheers,
Matt

[Matt Wilson]

Here are some latest berus shots from last week, including the pale individual :

[Mario Schweiger]

Yes, Matt, looks like a female, but I´m not 100% sure!
May you upload the last pic of this individual in max allowed size (1600 pixels wide, 500 KB).
Maybe in a larger picture, the cloaca is visible better!?

Mario