Adders.

[Wayne]

I used to see a fair number of Adders on my wandering through the local woodland.
I haven't seen an Adder for a number of years.

Apart from a few sheets of tin how can I create a haven for our little viper friends?

 

[Kadushu]

Poach the local pheasants.

 

[JonathanD]

Poach the local pheasants.

Yeah. That’ll help loads.

It’s a difficult question to answer. And without sounding pessimistic an even harder thing to do. Adders aren’t like mammals that can breed within a few months of being born. It can take at least four-five years for them to reach sexual maturity. Females then give birth every two or three years to live young. Which can leave them depleted and near death. And so close to hibernation the chances of building their fat reserves are slim. With our intermittent warmer winters, they wake up often, and use up valuable reserves when another cold snap hits. And many, again, don’t survive. Add to that the decreasing population and fractured populations. The genetic pool is getting weaker.

You can’t really attract adders, just make a larger and unfractured habitat. Putting tins down is just used by researchers to attract them in to gain an easier insight into numbers. In reality, they also attract predators and people, and they get disturbed even more. It’s not like a bird table for birds, and it won’t help in anyway to boost their numbers.

That’s a short condensed version. If I could see the habitat I could point out different ways of improving it and which bits need protecting. But I’d have to be eyes on. Maybe that’s a possibility next year.

 

[CLEM]

As if by magic

 

[JonathanD]

As if by magic

Someone said ’Adders’. It works like this, only with a big adder wrapped around Britain symbol.

 

[Broch]

I have exactly the same situation - open heath with scrub and woodland edges and I've not seen a single adder in 27 years of living here. Actually, I've not seen a single snake

Definitely a topic for the weekend Jonathan!

 

[JonathanD]

It’s one I’m quite a gobshite at.

 

[Toddy]

Y'know ? that's a point.

We're given masses of advice on how to create habitats and encourage everything from hedgehogs to butterflies, but I don't ever recall being given any on how to encourage snakes.

When I was little we had grass snakes in the ponds up the hill ( the Clyde valley is a kind of stepped one. The 'hill' is really a kind of ridge and the hollows became shallow lochs, they've been there since the ice melted, and used to be rich, rich habitats for wildlife. The few that are left are now in a kind of country park) but apart from newts, frogs and toads, we have no advice on how to encourage anything else of that ilk.
I kind of have the notion that the adders like warm rocks though, not our sodden wet and cold Lanarkshire clay.

I have no problems having grass snakes around, but I doubt the habitat area is really big enough for them right next to me.
If I can keep them in the garden though, that might be fun

 

[JonathanD]

Generally, people dislike snakes. Unlike bats which you can talk people around on as they look cute. And they’re not venomous either.

Its something I’ve challenged the BBC on for years. Their Countryfile calendar. Despite having a plethora of gorgeous snake images , their stance is that the audience and buying majority does not want to look at a snake picture for a month. Bats get it here too. So too, the fluffier programmes never cover them to any extent. Springwatch will do short segments, but nothing like the extended and numerous repetitive segments otters, dormice, pine martens, red squirrels, birds and badgers get. Even bats and amphibians hold up well here. Snakes no. Never. Countryfile presenters (Julia Bradbury)can even say they’re scary and horrible and blatantly declare their personal revulsion for them. And it wasn’t cut or toned down They never seem to be allowed to say that about any other species. Even spiders. Adders, because they are potentially lethal to pets and humans. That’s fine.

So too. Local news reports in areas where adders are thriving get repetitive headline drama slots. Saying the heat wave has caused a population boom and adders are multiplying in the area. Nonsense. That would take 20+ years, not six weeks. And that’s being optomistic. Just is, they can be more active when it’s hot and go looking for food, or in Spring, mates. It’s still a kill on sight for most people. Dog walkers especially will kill them if they see them. They’re are rare and not very often seen. When someone sees an adder for the first time, they are shocked by the bold pattern and aggressive looking defensive attitude. It’s venomous. Kill it!!! The drama in these news reports almost mandate it as being necessary.

 

[Toddy]

It's a rather sad reflection on ignorance and an almost spiteful attitude from someone in 'public education', isn't it ?

Even Captain Beaky and his band had the snake as their enemy though...."hissing Sid has eaten Toad!!".

My bother bought my kids a six foot rubber snake. We still call it (for it's draped up the rafters in the loft to this day) Hissing Sid
It scared the living daylights out of my moggies Great fun and amusement watching a cat watch a rubber snake and sort of go all manically puffed up, back arched and hissing like an overboiled kettle

Talking of bothers, that same one was clambering over the rocks up at the David Marshall Lodge on one of our family outings.....fifty years ago, at least, and he disturbed an adder. Little blighter was fascinated while my Dad told him to leave it alone and come down !
Cue a plummy voiced felllow making noises about having to deal with, 'the beast'. My Dad told him just to let it be, it would only bother folks if they bothered it.

So, we kind of grew up with the attitude to just leave snakes in peace.

Didn't stop my bother going looking for them though

 

[Norfolk_wanderer]

We have a fair population in my part of the world, around Thetford Forest. My job includes the reversion of ex forestry plantations back to heathland- 300ha so far. Despite the creation of optimal habitat adders are slow to colonise- the connectivity of these habitats within the wider landscape is just as important as the habitats themselves.

 

[TeeDee]

Only ever seen an Adder once down here in the SW.

 

[Wander]

I'm lucky because where I am the population is quite healthy - at the height of the season I could see them on an almost daily basis. I'm pleased to say I've noticed numbers increasing over the last three or four years.
Common lizards and slow worms are also quite healthy, especially the lizards.
They can be quite secretive and unless you physically see one they don't leave much secondary evidence of their presence so you can come away thinking there's none about.
I don't see many grass snakes. In fact, in all my time, I think I can count the number of times I've seen grass snakes in the wild could be counted on one, certainly no more than two, hands.

 

[slowworm]

In and around our garden there's loads of common lizards and slow worms and we see the occasional grass snake. On the other bit of woodland I own there's a large number of grass snakes there and adders on a neighbouring piece of land I have access to.

I do wonder if they are more affected by people, either just keeping out the way or numbers reducing due to constant disturbance?