August 2016 Last minute snake expedition ! Behind Pam and Clive's house is a Scientific Site of Interest. On the heathland are various bits of corrugated iron. They heat up in the sun and the snakes love to lie underneath them. We walked up with Clive and ventured into the Scientific Site of interest referred to as SSI as quoted a few times by Clive ! First we were on a path which was fine and Clive pointed out piles of logs that were good for the lizards. Then banks on the heathland that are good for adders. Then we went off piste...... We all had sensible footwear on - realising that my extra comfortable flip flops were not appropriate, Lucie had duly tucked the bottom of her joggers into her particularly suitable protective footwear to avoid any snakes climbing up her leg. This has happened to Clive in the past and he got bitten on the hand trying to remove the inquisitive adder ! He lived to tell the tale and I am sure has told it many times. So now we were tramping across heather covered heathland realising that actually these snakes could be anywhere, so obsessively watching every spot you placed your feet we advanced towards a corrugated piece of iron. It then felt like a treasure hunt as we vicariously announced the sightings of lots of bits of tin ! Clive's job was to lift the tin carefully at the edge, not putting fingers underneath incase an adder took dislike to being disturbed and lunged for said fingers.... Meanwhile, the intrepid wildlife photographers leant poised over the tin waiting for their first snake sightings. After Clive had lifted about 6 bits of tin, we had the feeling we had with the elusive Orca and I was convinced we wouldn't be lucky. Thankfully I was wrong and looking through the viewfinder I realised I was looking at my first smooth snake ever and became so mesmerised that Clive had to say "click now" to remind me to actually press the button !
Following the ceremonial lifting of a couple more tins, we found another smooth snake, this time with almost iridesant bright blue eyes and today became a school day..... I didn't know that their eyes glazed over like that just before they were due to shed their skin. Clive picked this one up and gave us the chance to see it really clearly. It even had a strategic placing over some heather to provide a coloured background for the 2 excited snake photographers. Just another great wildlife trip with Clive really.
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