Grass Snakes

 Natrix Natrix Helvetica

Sunday marked a very special day for me. For the first time since 1992 I chanced upon specimens of my favourite Order of animals (some Squamatans) and in particular a group of freshly emerged grass snakes.

Figuring that the warmest day of spring so far would be ideal I had actually gone to the place to see adders. Heading straight for a remote tongue of land between two lakes I hoped the peaceful spot away from walkers and their dogs would be the best chance of seeing anything.

Arriving there I saw, beneath the still skeletal trees, the still beaten down grass of winter and only the minimal undergrowth of nettle sprouts and hardy brambles. This did not trigger my snake hunting instinct honed as a child on heaths and old railway tracks amidst the buzz of summer insects, the dense vegetation and burning July sunshine.

A discarded condom packet caught my eye an unusually rich purple in the dull greens and browns. Softly pacing around the glade looking in the sunlit patches I rapidly decided that there was nothing to be seen - no diamond patterns soaking up the 11 o'clock sunshine. I stopped to listen to the silence broken only by the great-tit calls... the Spotted woodpecker drumming out his territorial call in the distance... and then the unmistakable russle of leaves. It might be the wind. It happened again. It was close. I looked toward where the sound was coming and toward the distinctive loops and coils of a grass snake its bluey green skin patterned with short dark bars and the pale yellow collar flanking its neck.

I could not believe what i was seeing. This was the holy grail of my childhood. In my life I had only seen 4 in the wild before. I thought back to the last sighting. A memory of my last sighting in May 1992 whilest doing dissertation at Silwood Park came to mind, a Platonic imprint escaping from the dusty shadows of my mind looking for reality. A lot had happened in those 17 years.

The snake was glistening in the sunlight - freshly emerged from hibernation and freshly sloughed from its winter coat. A female definitely judging from the size and broadness of the head and body. I stood motionless for what was going to be about 40 minutes in the hope of not disturbing her. Raising my binoculars I realised that in those coils were the coils of a second snake or maybe even a third. Two males, also freshly emerged, one with a vivid pollen coloured neck and one with the paler neck were vying for access to the female. It was the sudden bouts of undulations in the mass of loops that had alerted me. One male was definitely in a more intimate embrace with the female, which sounds like an odd thing to say for a snake. Ripples and undulations along his body carressed hers and sort out the cloaka. Eventually, with omega shaped loops, the male gripped above and below so that he could position his own cloaka and genitals against her. That male turned out to be the one with the vivid collar and his head was never far from the female. Meanwhile the whole process was made more difficult by the other male struggling to gain a mating position too.

I do not know if mating was successful. It was hard to see whether the female was reluctant or she was being choosy between the two males. After about 30 minutes she explosively split from the pair and raced over the bank. The two males were rather dazed by this exit, but the pollen collared one quickly followed her and the other male casually made his way to the nearest sun patch and laid out to sunbathe.

Listening further a few moments later I heard more rustling and moving gradually I saw a second group of three snakes. The female was indistinguishable from the one I had just seen, and the two males were both with brighter yellow collars. I could now see four snakes, but was unsure whether this second group was composed from the first pair. In much quicker order that group broke up and the female raced again over the bank. I didn't see a male pursue her this time and one or both the males casually moved into a sun patch to sunbathe. It was hard to see because they were part obscured by brambles and I didn't want to approach and disturb them. I was also distracted by a sparrow hawk in a nearby tree.

When finally I made my move I was met by a male snake energetically proceeding toward me and clearing the path for an appraching female. This was the previous female, and pollen necked male. Again I was stationery and the male seemed unphased, but the female only came so far before again heading back over the bank.

Throughout I was between 4-6 meters from the snakes, down wind, but with the sun behind me although not casting a shadow. I wonder though what impact I had on proceeding. I made little ground disturbance knowing the hear well. Was downwind as they taste well, and I don't think their eye sight is that good but maybe a 2 meter shadow 4 meters away is rather imposing?

Anyway I'm a little dissappointed that I was unable to keep track of proceedings to find out whether the male-in-tow was the successful male guarding his female from further mating, or whether the female had refused to mate, or whether the males who did not pursue had been successful. I also don't know whether I saw 4 snakes or 6! Writing this I am inclined to think that actually there was 4 (1 female and 3 males) and that the successful male was indeed protecting the famel from further matings. This would suggest that snakes have the same system as birds where the last mating sires the most offspring.

Truly great day anyway... and England when on to hammer France in the rugby too :-)