Adder

Matt and I met at Foulshaw Moss after work to have a look for adders. When I arrived he had already found 3 of the snakes, a female and two males. This is a head on view of one of the males. He's tightly coiled, but was over a foot in length when extended. This is best viewed in large to see the detail of his eyes.

The adder is of course our only poisonous snake in the UK. There is quite a high density at Foulshaw, and on finer days they can be seen basking in the sunshine. In tussocky vegetation though they are difficult to spot, so sandals or bare feet are not recommended. Bites are rarely fatal, but they are painful and will cause a lot of swelling. According to Wikipedia, the last person to die of an adder bite in the UK was in 1975.

Matt seems to have an attraction to snakes. When we were doing a survey on the Shap Fells, he was chased by a large female that he had nearly trodden on. On another occasion an adder hissed angrily at him after he stood on it. This isn't usual behaviour, they normally do their best to slither away unseen.

We went from Foulshaw to Ulpha Meadows. Here we saw our first wheatears of the year, two males in gorgeous breeding plumage. That takes my 2011 bird list on to 101 species.

Another wonderful early spring day.