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MY FIRST INTRO TO A SMOOTHSNAKE: |
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AGILIS Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 No. of posts: 694  View other posts by AGILIS |
Posted: 07 Mar 2007 In the late 1950s on a sand lizard safari from the big smokey capital to the then very distant beautiful sand dunes of Studland bay in the days when it was'nt clogged up with cars like today, when you couldnt walk more then few yards in the heather clad sand dunes without tripping over a sand lizard sloworms adders or common lizs , alas not like that anymore wonderful days. As a 14 year old the expectations of seeing a smooth snake was ones mecca in life. then from some sand dunes about 50 feet were I was trying to catch a sand lizard came a loud cry kill the bugger and other worse blasphemies nasty filthy thing this comming from a group of bug collectors . hearing this my curiosity took hold and I strolled over ( more then likley ran those days. ) to see what the commotion was. and to my horror see some idiot prancing & waving around his head a dead smooth snake claiming he had just saved one of his bug group from being bitten.my first smoothsnake siting. keith
LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID |
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Alex2 Senior Member Joined: 16 Dec 2006 No. of posts: 266  View other posts by Alex2 |
Posted: 07 Mar 2007 Sad story Keith, I'll never understand the minds.... |
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ben rigsby Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 No. of posts: 337 View other posts by ben rigsby |
Posted: 06 Jun 2010 hi keith, theres a longstanding adder (+ viv) colony in an old churchyard (yes, those places again!) in the town of STROUD, Glos. in the early eighties large knee-jerk signs were put up saying "danger- adders" "beware!" etc. perhaps predictably, this resulted in hot-headed and ignorant folk going there to kill them with spades. after a while the council thankfully saw sense and removed them. theres plenty to see there now. adders and vivs. as another forum member can also attest to. not least with a certain amazing lacerta pic elsewhere..... a happy ending here at least. ben Diversity. |
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arvensis Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 No. of posts: 445 View other posts by arvensis |
Posted: 14 Jun 2010 There's a church down this way near Ower which has a sign that says "Beware there are Adders in the churchyard". Well that was 2 years ago - if its still there I don't know. As for the poor smoothie - it just proves how retarded some people are when it comes to snakes. Mark P.S. I've yet to see see my first Smoothie this year!! Hampshire Amphibian and Reptile Group. |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 16 Jun 2010 The Stroud cemetry still has "Caution: Adders live here" on all the signs, but they're not big and prominent. There's also slow worms and grass snake present. Have never seen the adders there yet, though. Lee Fairclough |
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AGILIS Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 No. of posts: 694 View other posts by AGILIS |
Posted: 17 Jun 2010 Hi Lee more then likly your observations , are what the less informed regard as adders on their notice board, keithLOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID |
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ben rigsby Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 No. of posts: 337 View other posts by ben rigsby |
Posted: 17 Jun 2010 hi keith, adders are definately present at the location. a couple of years ago on a NARRS training day RAUK member kevinb presented a young one to our group headed by chris gleed-owen. we also saw vivs that day. and AF. no natrix/amphibians that i recall. in fact it was a great day for our sharp-eyed kev all round. not only did he sucessfully choose a great herp location (where Robinswood Hill had dismally failed), he was among the first to spot a viv lizard basking and most notably, it was also one of the few occasions hes managed to handle a vipera specimen without having to go to hospital afterwards. 
big signs USED to face onto the road. good riddance. cheers, ben Diversity. |
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AGILIS Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 No. of posts: 694 View other posts by AGILIS |
Posted: 17 Jun 2010 Hi Ben and all sorry did not mean that there werent any adders there, just my quip at the publics attitude to sloworms and grassies that they mistake them for adders and even kill them. As in my original thread about the smoothies in Studland , I think that accounted for some of the decline of ca,in the area due to being mistaken for adders by the kill all the nasty snakes brigade, that was more rife years ago, they even used to bottle them up in formaldehyde and sell them to tourists in the new forest. LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID |
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ben rigsby Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 No. of posts: 337 View other posts by ben rigsby |
Posted: 18 Jun 2010 thanks keith. yes i misunderstood you then sorry! i was previously blissfully unaware of your last sad fact about adders in formaldehyde and it reminds me horribly of the souvenir rattles being offered for sale as keyfobs in the awful so-called US "rattlesnake round-ups". unwarranted persecution and exploitation more like. both US and UK. anyhow, we cant offer anyone luxuries like CA or LA (or the more controversial PM/L viridis- far as i know!) here in GLOS but if anyones ever in this neck of the woods, the aforementioned cemetery (and plenty of other local sites) are worth an hour or two for the "regulars". BB RT all the caudata, VB NN AF ZV are all easily found in stroud at the right time at locations in or within short reach of the boneyard by car 
thankfully stroud has never been an arable area so its better "preserved" than many spots. less hedge removal etc. its very scenic too with its steep hillsides. sorry, i sound like the stroud tourist board dont i?! obviously we're no match for King Dorset in terms of diversity of species but we DO have a canal dwelling T scripta elegans if that helps! cheers, ben Diversity. |
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-LAF Senior Member Joined: 03 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 317 View other posts by -LAF |
Posted: 21 Jun 2010 And of course Stroud also has this  Have to agree with Ben, Stroud cemetry is a wonderful site. Lee Fairclough |
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ben rigsby Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 No. of posts: 337 View other posts by ben rigsby |
Posted: 21 Jun 2010
great link lee! funnily enough i one took a date there (ShaB Hill) one night years ago for post-pub meal rough n tumble in the car. as you do when romance is young. this was when "dogging" was fairly new. we had no idea of the locations popularity as a site for the craze. we simply parked up in what seemed like the seclusion and romance of a leafy layby with a great view (even at night there were the lights) down over the severn. NOT that we intended looking at it mind you. i remember the two of us wondering why, at regular intervals, the HGV drivers who were parked up curtains drawn, kept getting out of their cabs and interrupting us by walking past with their torches. we were laughably naive. eventually my girlfriend said she felt uneasy and we left. the seal of my condom sadly unbroken that night. returning to the subj of herps though, this spot and very close by CRICKLEY HILL, LECKHAMPTON HILL and COLD SLAD have long been great places to see adders. the DEVILS CHIMNEY is quite impressive too. though its only a folly and not old or natural. fantastic views around there. . and not just of human genitalia.
ben Diversity. |
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will Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 No. of posts: 330 View other posts by will |
Posted: 21 Jun 2010 Ben - getting the conversation back to snakes, as it were...I've been a regular visitor to Lecky Hill for around 15 years and I reckon numbers of adders are well down (didn't help that a 'beware adders' sign was up there til a few years ago). I also heard of a parent and toddler group who were instrumental in getting the adders exterminated at a nearby site in Gloucs because of the perceived risk to their infants.. |
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ben rigsby Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 No. of posts: 337 View other posts by ben rigsby |
Posted: 21 Jun 2010 thanks lee. ive not been to leckhampton hill for years myself so you would know better than i if the adder count's down. sorry we cant compare notes on your suspected viper nos reduction theory therefore! what do you think the reasons are if so? land use is unchanged. bad winter(s)? i only knew L Hill was still a good site for the species as member kevinb has found there several times recently. your last statement is very sad and shocking in this day and age. surely not true or legal? whats your source? ben Diversity. |
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ben rigsby Senior Member Joined: 27 Apr 2010 No. of posts: 337 View other posts by ben rigsby |
Posted: 21 Jun 2010 the above account was an excerpt from my forthcoming AUTOBIOGRAPHY*: CONFESSIONS OF A HERPER. *NOT published by FROGLIFE. Diversity. |
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kevinb Senior Member Joined: 18 Mar 2009 No. of posts: 61 View other posts by kevinb |
Posted: 21 Jun 2010 I was a frequent visitor to Leckhampton area in 2007 and through photography managed to identify 30 individual Adders on the site. We had a lot of snow there in 2007/2008 which due to the altitude stayed for a long time. The following spring saw very few Adders despite many visits and then last year the local "conservation group" were up there and removed a lot of the cover on the site. The subsequent secondary growth has swamped the basking sites where I would expect to see them and so I rarely go there now. |
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AGILIS Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 No. of posts: 694 View other posts by AGILIS |
Posted: 29 Jun 2010 great signe Lee I just see it keith LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID |
- MY FIRST INTRO TO A SMOOTHSNAKE |