Killer Shots!!!

Grass Snake slithering behind the wall where staff sit regularly throughout the day for their cigarette fix - time to give it up!!!

After watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony until 12.45am I just couldn't get up as early as I would have liked. I did make it out of the house by 8.30am to look for grass snakes at work though. I counted at least five different ones including two entwined together. The real poser slithered along a concrete area and alongside a crack in the bottom of the wall (see above). An indian doctor was ringing the hospital to report the snake as it had alarmed him. He said to me that there are thousands in Indian, but he didn't know the UK had any snakes, so I gave him descriptions of the three British snakes that we have here, he seemed very interested. He said it had hissed at him when he got close - well they will if you get too close and move too quickly! I will have to speak to some of the 'officials' at work on Monday as I don't want people getting alarmed. We are privileged to have them here and they are a protected species so there is nothing anyone can do about them. The snake we were watching slithered over the hill and decided to rest in the semi shade. I moved as stealthily as the snake, creeping closer and closer. My initial shots were with the 300 f4 lens but I went back to the car and changed to the Macro lens. Eventually I laid down so I could take eye level shots – I was less than a foot away!!! It was magical being so close to this beautiful creature. The girls at work would have been horrified if they had seen me doing this and even more horrified when I stood up later to stroke its tail as it slithered down the hill, to coil around the bottom of the oak tree. It then coiled back on itself in a striking pose as if to say 'you have pushed things too far now'. I retreated back at this point to save it hissing at me and went back to the car.

Grass Snake, King's Lynn.

I picked both my sisters and we visited my parents for a while and then went to Holme Reserves. Along the Firs Road, the standing caravan has now been replaced with a huge wooden chalet type building, more trees cut down and looking much too formal for my liking. Sad when things have to change, so many wonderful memories of pockets of land and fields that were good migrants spots, now replaced by houses. The thing I miss most of all is the telegraph wires that ran over the marsh down to the Firs House – these wires were awesome for birds to perch on, swallows and martins would congregate on the wires, kestrels, starlings etc etc - a bee eater probably being the most exciting highlight to have rested on these wires.

My sisters and I were reminiscing about our childhood days, as we sat on the seats at Holme Bird Observatory. There were sandwasps burrowing in the bank and a large white butterfly was seen, but no other butterflies at all. We walked over on to the beach and along to the path that crosses over to the NWT Firs House. There were 5 ringed plovers and several dunlin feeding along the shore and sandwich terns were flying past, but little else apart from holiday makers, dogs and mini barbeques, which are banned by the way - that's the barbeques not the dogs, but pity its not both!

Had a quick look in the hide at Redwell Marsh and for the first time saw absolutely nothing! Took my sisters home and spent the rest of the evening, sorting through pictures.

The poster below has been taken from the Reptiles and Amphibian Conservation site.