South Coast Snow

I have managed to remember most of my deleted post and luckily still have the photos, which tell the story. 

Luckily I got my butterfly transect walked on Friday while the weather was still good. I saw six peacocks which is not a bad start to the season. I also did another night-time newt survey, this time closer to home. We mainly saw palmate newts and not many of them but the highlight of the evening was a new sighting of common toad at one of the sites. 

The day before I saw my first treecreeper for a couple of years and came across this interesting insect - the cream-spot ladybird. It is easy to identify because it has pale spots, six of which form a row across the middle - three per wingcase.

Then, this morning the snow came and came and came. Actually only about one inch fell and lasted for about 3 hours but amazingly I saw two snowmen and even people trying to use a sledge! Snow is a big deal here. Assuming that it wouldn’t last and that it was a rare opportunity to take some snowy landscape shots of some of my sites, I bypassed the office and it was the right decision because it started melting almost as soon as it had fallen.

April snow makes for some interesting photography - such as the emergence of the first native bluebells. I also had a potential classic shot of a little egret against a snowy background. I had both vital ingredients but my camera wasn’t up the task and I had to satisfy myself with a distant shot of the bird, high up in an oak tree.

I then had a meeting out on the heath, where I was meant to be teaching a new warden the method for walking butterfly transects. Snow isn’t mentioned specifically in the instructions (hmmmm) but since it was below 13 C anyway (the minimum walking temperature in full sun) we decided to go and look for reptiles. Actually we were looking for all the survey tins but (being relicensed for 2008) I took to opportunity to lift them on the off-chance.

Reptile spotting in the snow must be quite a rare occupation. Amazingly I saw a common lizard on top of a snowy tree stump (camera hand not quick enough!). Luckily there was another under one of the tins. Both were extremely quick considering the conditions and I only just managed to get a (unique) record shot as it speeded away. The dark flanks and almost snake-like body pose are classic ID features.

One of the next tins was vacant but as I lifted it I heard a familiar hissing sound nearby. It took rather longer than it should have for my brain to process the sound (now where have I heard that before?) and remind me to start looking for the adder - which was about 5cm from my foot, in the strike position! Funnily enough I was wearing wellies and I immediately thought of the woman in Huddersfield who got bitten through her boot!

Although it was a young male, it was pretty alert and I didn’t need telling twice. I rapidly backed off and just had time to get another quick record shot. You can see from the photo that he is a bit hissed off…….

All in all quite an interesting morning, completed by a lovely roe buck sighting and the distinctive song of a dartford warbler. I love my job!