It is a great year for Grass Snakes. Maybe it is me also who is waking up from a long hibernation. Also being unemployed and having a bike to get out and around a bit more may also contribute - is this the value of doing something rather than pumping the never satiated engine of employment?
Two more grass snakes this time found yesterday on Easter Day in Sevenoaks. Both around 4 years similar to the ones in Reading. Found these under a piece of corregated metal taking a break from the gloomy Easter weather. I was prepared for the photo so took it quickly and gently replaced the covering on the snoozing pair. This always worries me and I wish I hadn't moved it - I lifted it again to see that it hadn't squeezed them and they were uncoiled this time and lying up and down along the corregated grooves. I gently returned the cover and left them in peace.
It is quite possible that the recent wet and warm summers may have benefitted the amphibians which make up their primary food. This also means that the frog fungus and the decline of frogs may have slowed. With global warming we will see a lot more of them :-)
p.s. Notice the beautiful iridescence of the freshly sloughed scales in the flash light (that is shinyness no slimyness as my mum thinks). These guys must be fairly newly out of hibernation.
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