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Mineos a slow-worm: |
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Chris Monk Senior Member Joined: 21 Apr 2004 No. of posts: 157  View other posts by Chris Monk |
Posted: 23 Feb 2011 First record of the year for slow-worm yesterday - down a long disused lead mine! A friend, who's a caver and member of the county Bat Group, was surveying the mine for bats and finding none at the time was checking the floor for bat droppings to see if there was any evidence of them ever using it. He spotted a slow-worm on the floor by a pile of rock debris about 20m inside the entrance (its a drift mine on a valley side not a shaft). He thought it was dead but when he picked it up it moved a bit lethargically so he put it back down by the rock. Its been a bit cold up here recently but no doubt where it was found is close enough to the entrance for it to wake up when the weather gets warmer later on. Derbyshire Amphibian & Reptile Group www.derbyshirearg.co.uk |
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arvensis Senior Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 No. of posts: 445 View other posts by arvensis |
Posted: 19 Mar 2011 Surprised to see that slowwies have had no other mention this year as I'm sure others must have seen them by now. I've seen a few this year over a couple of sites, so they're starting to appear. Mark Hampshire Amphibian and Reptile Group. |
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Scale Senior Member Joined: 05 Dec 2010 No. of posts: 83  View other posts by Scale |
Posted: 19 Mar 2011 Plenty of Slow-worms over the last 10 days (west mids)+ have been checking mats since mid-Feb at two Slow-worm sites to record spring emergence. The first was on the 8th March (a large male in poor condition with dislocated vertebra and recent puncture wounds), although i'm sure the odd one would have been out before this (everything else less cryptic has). Numbers increasing steadily since and until recent (5 day) emergence boom. First openly exposed basking individual found on 17th March (a strange early spring habit they have) Generally been seeing aggregations of more than one animal per mat, under mats placed near to or on, what i would consider to be, the hibernaculum. Dispersal in one homogeneous grassland field is limited to likely hibum in peripheral dry banks, stone piles, hawthorn roots, anthills etc. None in the open field as yet. Interesting about the cave. Bats require almost 100% humidity and cool stable temps for hibernation. Probably down there for the same reason. Maybe it will kick off a new branch of UK reptile evolution! Here's hoping. |
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Suzi Senior Member Joined: 06 Apr 2005 No. of posts: 860 View other posts by Suzi |
Posted: 19 Mar 2011 Not seen any of my garden slow worms yet. As folk might recall I have over 30 in various compost heaps. I am worried as I expect to see them much earlier than this. Suz |
- Mineos a slow-worm |