First Grass Snake of 2012

Not been able to get out much due to other commitments and work, but I did manage to get out for a couple of hours earlier and I found a nice basking grass snake.
Although I did manage to get close, which is quite hard with the grass snake, it kept it's head hidden from view!
Still nice to see and I'm sure there will be many more encounters where I can get a clear head shot.

Cobra in the Forest!

The grass snake (Natrix natrix) may not be venomous like the adder (Vipera berus), but they do posses some other unique ways of fending off a possible threat.

1. If you startle a grass snake and it feels like it has no means of a quick escape, it will sometimes rear up like a cobra. The female grass snake in the photograph below did just that and at around 120cm in length, with approx 1/3 of her body raised in the air, she was quite intimidating.

2. If a grass snake is attacked, or if it feels like its life is in danger, it will sometimes feign death. Basically it will squirm around and come to rest upside down with its mouth gaping and tongue hanging out.
I do not have any photographs of this as I have never put a grass snake in this situation, where it feels threatened to this degree. I cringe when I see photographs on the internet of grass snakes doing this, as I know that they have been, or are enduring immense stress!

3. To accompany the death throws and if disturbed, the grass snake will sometimes squirt a "foul" smelling liquid from its anal gland. If this doesn't sound bad enough, just imagine what rotten fish and anal secretions must smell like and you are almost there. If you get this on your clothes or skin, it is very hard to wash away and the smell makes you feel sick!


A grass snake of 120cm pretending to be a cobra. I was lying on the ground for this shot and her head was higher than mine. Awesome encounter with a truly beautiful snake.
I still see her today on occasions, 4 years later and she looks a lot bigger.


Rob

Sniffing The Dasies

Photographing snakes is easy, right? Wrong!

You can never predict where they will emerge and this can sometimes create some tricky situations.
I heard this female grass snake before I saw her and just managed to get my camera on her in time, before she slithered off. She didn't go far though and I did manage to photograph her again, later on.
If you startle a grass snake they will sometimes rear up, a bit like a cobra, to try and intimidate the threat. If you have a 120cm snake, they can lift around 30cm of their body off the ground and if you are lying down, as I usually am, it "can" be intimidating!
I have some pics of the grass snake rearing up and will post them soon.


The sun was behind this female and with the daisy in the frame it made a nice back lit image.




Rob

Basking Grass Snake

This is a photograph of a basking female grass snake. If you don't know what to look for you would have walked right past her. She has tucked herself behind a rock for extra camouflage and also for a bit of extra protection.
Sometimes snakes will stretch out to bask, this is when they are cold and need to warm up quickly. Once they have warmed up, they will then coil to regulate how much heat they need to absorb. I will address this later.
You will notice that her eye is slightly blue and clouded. This is also something I will address at a later date.

She was approx 120cm in length and quite bulky. A mature snake and grass snakes of this size and bigger are seldom seen.





Rob

Grass Snake - Reproduction

Grass snakes mate in the spring, usually around April and unlike the adders, which give birth to live young, they lay eggs.
The female lays the eggs around June/July and they hatch in September as the fully developed young cut their way out of the eggs by using a specially developed egg tooth. This tooth is on the top of their mouth, but is lost soon after hatching.
The mature female finds a suitable place to lay her eggs, usually in a compost heap where she can be sure that they will be protected from the elements, predators and with a temperature ranging between 21 & 28 oC.


Grass snake eggs. You can see where the young snakes have cut their way through the egg, using their egg tooth.



Rob

Identification Part 2

Here we have two mating grass snakes and a female adder, all in the same shot. You can now see the difference between the two with the female adder standing out from the grass snakes with her zig-zag pattern and ginger brown colour.
I never disturb them and I photographed these snakes from quite a distance, hence the distracting reeds in front of them, but I would rather have a messy shot, than know I had disturbed them. Especially when they are mating!





Rob

Adder & Grass Snake Identification

Here are the sloughed skins of a female adder and a grass snake. I can tell the difference between these snakes within a millisecond, but for all the people that are unsure, these pointers will help you id a snake if you are lucky enough to see one in the wild.

Grass snake:
Dark green / olive colour with dark dotted scales running down the body.

Yellow collar around the back of the head. Vibrant in younger snakes, duller in older ones.

Orange eye with a round pupil.

No V on back of head, like the adder.



Adder:
Females are brown, with a darker brown zig-zag pattern running the entire length of the body. Whereas the male adder is grey with a dark, almost black zig-zag.

Red eye with a vertical pupil.

Has a V on back of the head.



I will post a photograph soon of the adder and grass snake together.



Rob

How it all Began!

I was 8 years old when I saw my first snake in the Forest of Dean. I was out walking in the forest with my parents one day and was approx 15 - 20 feet in front of them when I saw it.
It was stretched out from the verge, basking on the Forestry Commission path and looked enormous! I was young, so this made it look big to me, but I didn't care, I just stood there staring at it!
My mum and dad walked up and my dad said "that's an adder, don't get any closer!"
We stood there and watched as it slowly made its way back into the grass verge and I can remember it like it was yesterday. I now know that we were watching a female adder because of her colour, females are brown and males are black and grey.
It was at that precise moment when my fascination with snakes started. Every time I went out, I would be looking for snakes, nothing else.

I was a teenager when I saw my next snake, a male adder curled around some exposed tree roots. Again my dad helped me find this snake and I still monitor and survey this area for adders and grass snakes today.

You have to learn how to behave around wildlife and snakes are no different. You must treat them with the utmost respect at all times and if you are disturbing them, you must walk away.
When I photograph snakes I am usually between 6 inches and 3 feet away from them, as this is required to capture the detail. They are not restrained in any way and if they felt threatened they would disappear in a flash!
My technique has taken me a long time to perfect so that I don't disturb them. I read their body language and I have even had a male adder lick the front of my camera, another rest his chin on my trainer and another one even pursued me as I was filming him.
This was not aggression, he was just inquisitive. The trick is to get as low to the ground as possible, this way you are not casting a shadow and look less intimidating.

I thank my mum and dad for giving me the guidance to be able to care for and photograph our wildlife, including our wild snakes.


Female Adder - Early 1990's



Rob

Mature Female Grass Snake

This is a mature female grass snake (Natrix natrix), she was approx 120cm, or 4' long and quite bulky.
Grass snakes are non-venomous, but they do have a very unique way of defending themselves.
If threatened or attacked, the grass snake will roll over on its back and feign death. It will gape its mouth and the tongue will hang out. If this fails they will then squirt a liquid from their anal gland, which comprises of partly digested food and anal secretions!
I have been unfortunate to have smelt this in the past and it is one smell I never want to smell again!

It is quite difficult to sex these snakes as they have no colour variations like the adder, but as the females grow considerably larger than the males, this is one way.
The other more complicated way of telling males from females is to count the
sub-caudal scales, males have 68-72 and females have 52-56.
Of course you have to get close enough to do this and as the grass snake is "very" shy and elusive, it can prove very difficult!



Rob