Adder Time.

 With all the Antarctica and Owl blogs, I've been getting a bit behind on the blog posts, but with summer arriving the focus has gone back to getting closer to our smaller wildlife.

However, it was back in early March, when Lisa and I tried for the local Adders. I love seeing these incredible animals, and most years I head off to one of my favourite sites to look for these as they come out of hibernation. Thinking back to when I was a kid, I was petrified of snakes. Probably from all the negatives that circulated in those days. I still remember racing nearly a mile home when I saw a Grass Snake swimming in a ditch!! Today, I would love to see this again. At that time I became determined to lose that fear of snakes, and I forced myself to study them. I'm really glad I did that, as now I love seeing them.

Anyway, on the day that we went looking for them, we found 11 Adders, my biggest count at this site for many years. A wonderful start to our springtime wildlife watching. We also saw a couple of Comma's.

Male Adder.

Male Adder.

I always try to photograph these animals without disturbing them, although at this site they are used to many dog walkers passing by, so are quite used to human activity. They do however also move often to an area with more sun, as the day moves on. I found one Adder as it was on the move to a very warm sunny patch, and once he had settled he was very approachable. It is always a good feeling when after taking the photos, they are still settled in the same spot, as was the case with this Adder.

Male Adder, basking in the warmth.

It was then walking back to the car park when I spotted this lovely Comma.

Comma.