Good Season for Snake Sign

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JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,479
Stourton,UK
Lots of folks ask me how to find snakes, and the answer is complicated and varies from season to season, as well as location. But here's something that is easy to do if you know of an area where snakes are reported to occur. And best of all, this is the perfect time of year to go out and find that sign. It will also put you right up close to the snakes themselves, although that might require more time and honing of your skills and patience. Lowland heathland is the perfect spot.



So, this time of year the mating has ended and they are all building up reserves either for birth in the case of the 50% population of females that are about to do that in the next four to eight weeks or so, or in the case of the males, to build up reserves for the winter. In short, they are basking, hunting and eating, basking, hunting and eating and... getting bigger. This means they need to shed their skins as they don't slough dead cells constantly as we do. They do it all in one go. And they are doing it en masse, right now.




What you need to look for in amongst the vegetation, and usually around tussock grass and heather, is something whitish silver that catches your eye. Best description is like a small but long piece of stretched cling film that looks as though someone has threaded around the strands of vegetation. This is what I found yesterday...



This one is an adders, in fact they all are that I found yesterday and I've carefully parted the tussock grass so you can see it clearly and with my knife alongside so you can judge scale....



This is another from a large female I've known for nearly two decades...








After picking the shed skin up and putting it on top of the heather to dry, I noticed she was basking right by me. Good lesson if you are out hunting, look in the immediate area before exposing and collecting the skin. No fun spending a week in hospital.

She had that brand new unpackaged look. Bright colours that are only present a week or so after shedding. She was too quick for me as she was alert due to the heat and I was messing about right by her for a while.




It's amazing with big snakes like that. If you don't scare them off by almost treading on them, they will be back within minutes in the same spot basking. But they will be more alert to your movement. I saw her six times in the space of an hour, but she was too alert for me to take a good picture.

With dew collecting in the early morning and with rain about, the skins get wet and become delicate, so you need to be careful when unwrapping them from the undergrowth. After drying, they are quite tough like tissue paper. And the scalation and patterns can be seen and used to identify species and sex.







This is a young female I came across within a five metre radius of four skins I found and the large female.











As you can, she's quite a dull opaque brown colour, which means she'll be shedding her skin in the next couple of days. This will happen close to where she is now, and she'll be found basking within metres of the same spot she was in yesterday. I'll try and get some pictures of her then so you can see the difference. But this is her as of Friday 1 Aug...




Some amazing detail can be found on these skins.








You can also preserve them by gluing them to white paper which will enhance and show the patterns, and then laminate them. this will preserve them forever and allow you to keep them in a folder for future identification. I'll post some pictures up on the results you can get.

It's well worth getting out there and looking for these. They are such rare creatures and this is the best time to find their sign, which is usually nigh on impossible.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Lovely post with great info and pictures, thanks for letting us see it. Would never have thought of laminating the skins for further records. Used to see a lot of adders when I worked in forestry and it was a joy to watch them bask and go about their lives. Very pretty things to watch. Sadly some would come a cropper due to operations or vehicles though the guys were always very careful as none of them found them threatening. (One got run over by a van one day and I thought I'm not wasting it, since it was dead I cooked it for my tea.) Would much rather see them alive despite being tasty. What's the life span like? You were saying you've known one individual for a couple of decades.
 

Macaroon

A bemused & bewildered
Jan 5, 2013
7,209
362
73
SE Wales
Very interesting post, most informative............We've got Adders nearby and I'm often able to spot them but without any knowledge to apply, at least now I'll be able to apply some of what I learn here - thanks :)
 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,479
Stourton,UK
John Fenna told me he accidently trod on one way back when he was a young fella (didn't realise the adder went back that far in history). Anyway, he did it the honour of eating it too. I respect that.

The oldest recorded wild adder is probably about 38 years old now. I first recorded this female in 96, and she's always been around this football pitch sized area despite a vast change in that small region from heathland, to scrub, to young woodland, to renovated heath again. Amazing. In captivity it is though they could live for 50 years or more. Every year after they emerge from hibernation, it is a huge relief and emotional to see she's still around. She mates only once in every four to five years now where younger females mate every other year.

Here are some pictures of her in 2012...









 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,479
Stourton,UK
Cheers matey.

Sadly, no idea how old she was back then. My records were quite amateur back then as it was a hobby, all I have is head pattern sketches and some bad pictures taken on a cheap Praktika SLR. But she was adult and at least 5 -7 years old. But that is a guesstimate.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
She's beautiful, the detail especially in that last picture is great. I take it you can tell her by some markings?
I'm glad you weren't offended by my eating the poor one that got run over. Didn't want to waste it and always wondered what they did taste like. (Really nice by the way - unlike puffin, yuck!) But I'd never go out and kill one - like them too much and anyway the 1981 act protects them.
Again great post.
 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,479
Stourton,UK
Her head markings are very distinct. But I know her so well now I can tell her from any part of her body. She is huge and the colouration is very distinctive and has taken on the colour of the old spagnum moss that occurs all over the area and is a favourite area she likes to be in.

Puffin is vile. So is grass snake.
 

woof

Full Member
Apr 12, 2008
3,647
5
lincolnshire
Thanks for the information JD.

Whats the biggest grass snake you have heard of or come across ?, the reason I ask, is I saw a monster of one last week, while I was working(gardener)in a clients garden. I would put it at approx. 2ft in length & as thick as a broom handle, it was olive drab in colour, with some darker markings, but a very light coloured head.

Rob
 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,479
Stourton,UK
Thanks for the information JD.

Whats the biggest grass snake you have heard of or come across ?, the reason I ask, is I saw a monster of one last week, while I was working(gardener)in a clients garden. I would put it at approx. 2ft in length & as thick as a broom handle, it was olive drab in colour, with some darker markings, but a very light coloured head.

Rob


At 2ft in length, that's not actually that big for a grass snake. That female adder I talked about is about as big as that and grass snakes grow much larger. A colleague of mine once caught one that must have exceeded 2 metres (7ft) in length, it was huge. I held it about 30cm from the tail at shoulder level and the head and same amount I was holding, if not more was on the ground. We reckon it must have been at least 215 cm and about six inches in diameter at the widest part. I've got a picture of it somewhere and it's head was huge too. On average though, they get to about four or five feet as adults. I see a large one regularly where I recorded the adders in this thread. I always pause for a long time working out what it is as she resembles a python more than a grass snake, and I need a positive ID with so many adders about. Usually by the time my brain has worked out its safe to grab, she's gone. One day though, I'll get her.

This is a quite a large one...

[video=youtube;14KuL_iEpiM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14KuL_iEpiM[/video]
 

John Fenna

Lifetime Member & Maker
Oct 7, 2006
23,106
2,833
66
Pembrokeshire
Another great thread - I never knew Grass Snakes could get so big!
It is a great idea on laminating the skins... I wish I had thought of preserving the skins I found as a child!
 

JonathanD

Ophiological Genius
Sep 3, 2004
12,809
1,479
Stourton,UK
Here are some examples of laminated skins, which show how well they can come out.

Dorsal mount showing scalation and pattern...






Underside mount showing sub-caudal scales...

 

bambodoggy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2004
3,062
50
49
Surrey
www.stumpandgrind.co.uk
A very useful thread, thank you very much

We get loads of adders round here (Surrey Heath) and I often see them basking. I found a skin while clearing scrub and gorse off the sandy mound back stops at one of the Bisley ranges the week before last. Would love to know how to sex a snake from its shedded skin....and actually (as a total snake novice) from the snake itself....bearing in mine I have no skill, no experience and NO plans to start picking up snakes

Many thanks
 
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