Another Adder Day.

 With the Adders performing so well for myself and Graham last week, Lisa and I decided to have a go at the weekend to see if they would be as photogenic.

The Bog Beacon would also be a new species for her, so there was another reason for making the trip. The only fly in the ointment, was that the weather forecast was not particularly promising, with quite a breeze blowing and only a few sunny intervals. However, as is often the case it seems these days, the forecast was not exactly accurate and there was actually more sunshine than predicted as well as the wind not being as strong as expected.

The Grass Snake unfortunately was not seen, but it wasn't long before we had seen the Bog Beacons. These looked very good in the sunshine, and after getting a few photos last week, I tried shooting more into the light this time, with some pleasing results.

Bog Beacon.

Following this we went to the area that the Adders were found last week. What I assume were the same Adders were once again showing quite well. So as not to disturb the snakes we both used telephoto lenses and it was just great watching the reptiles as they moved about slowly from time to time to get to a sunnier spot as the sun moved round. 

The Melanistic Adder.

Adder Basking.

After spending around an hour with the snakes we checked out the bracken for Lizards, seeing several.

Common Lizard.

There were also lots of Wood Anemone starting to flower. There will soon be a wonderful carpet of these flowers in several woodlands nearby.

Wood Anemone.

We then went around other parts of the woodland looking for insects. As the breeze was really quite cold we failed to see any butterflies, which was a bit of a surprise, as in some sheltered areas it seemed warm enough. We did see a few Dark-edged Bee-flies though and Lisa spotted a very early Green Tiger Beetle, which was a bit of a surprise.

We then headed back to the Adders for a final few minutes with them before the sun left the area for the day. The normal coloured Adder was now wrapped around a Bracken stem, which was quite good to see. We were only just in time for seeing this one again, as after just a few minutes the sun had gone from this little patch, however the melanistic Adder was still showing well. At this point I thought I would try to get a head shot. Putting on a 1.4x converter gave me the small increase in power that was enough for this, after a bit of a larger crop too. 

Adder wrapped around the Bracken.

Close-up of the melanistic Adder.

At this point we left the black Adder to sun itself for the remaining time the sun was shining in its favoured area. Another wonderful day with several good sightings.