What a lovely week it has been, the weather has been beautiful - feeling the sun again on my face in the fresh spring air is an awesome feeling and a most welcome return for both me and all my scaly reptile friends as well.
I personally think that early spring is the best time of the year - life emerges from the depths of winter darkness and a comforting feeling in the pit of my soul fills me with a warm feeling knowing that the coming months will yield a plethora of colourful sights, smells and sounds of re- emerging and new life.
This spring weather has meant that In one week I have been lucky enough to spot a grass snake ''natrix natrix' whilst visiting my sister Allison in Oxfordshire, the Grass, Ringed or water snake as they are sometimes called - was only just out of hibernation and sunning itself on a piece of plastic sheeting. The snake was approximately 3 foot long, which is a fair size, although Grass snakes can grow up to 6 feet in length !!.
Grass snake ''natrix natrix''
Im not 100% sure but I think the Grass snake that I spotted was a female as she had a rather tri-angular and wide head shape and the eyes were not protruding as they do with male grass snakes.
Spurned on by my first reptile sighting this year I could not wait to get back to my office (RSPB South Stack) and re-acquaint myself with all my ectothermic (cold blooded) friends on the RSPB reserve by undertaking a spot of ''herping'' (looking for reptiles)
Upon my return to the office on Saturday the 17th March - (yesterday) I met a really nice couple at the RSPB Visitor Centre who accompanied me on an impromptu guided reptile walk around the RSPB South Stack Reserve, together we saw several common lizards ''Lacerta vivipara'' and a slow worm ''Anguis fagilis'' :-) Seeing slow worms on the RSPB reserve is a very rare occurrence, so we were all very pleased indeed. We did not spot any adders ''Vipera berus'' on this walk - however, if this nice weather keeps up i'm sure we will next time.
Common Lizard ''Lacerta vivipara''
Slow worm ''Anguis fagilis''
The couple who joined me on my walk said ''they had a fantastic time and was one of the best walks that they had been on'' - which made me happy - they were brilliant company - thank you, and thank you also for supporting our wildlife conservation work by joining the RSPB at the end of your walk :-) - I think we have a couple of budding herpetologists in the making !!
Ok - calling all budding Herpetologists and any reptile loving people - do you fancy joining me or one of my colleagues on a reptile safari at RSPB South Stack on the 3rd of April - if you do, you might get a chance to spot some of South Stack's beautiful reptiles then please visit this link for further information.http://www.rspb.org.uk/events/details.aspx?id=tcm:9-304326
Anyway - take care my fellow homeotherms and hope to see you ''herping'' soon!!!
Love - and a piece of respect
Mark :-) x (-: