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Posts by Ophiuchus: |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44  View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 22 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
Hi, I went along with Arvensis and met Paul Rick and Carl for a good days herping. We found 5 smooth snakes, which had a taste for human flesh! saw the tail of a grass snake, he was under a tin with a smooth snake but slithered away quickly, we also saw a few common lizards and possibly a sand lizard, i got a few nice pics which i will post when i figure how to resize them, so all in all it was a very good day and it was nice to meet others with a passion for our reptilian and amphibian freinds! look forward to meeting up again sometime. Jay Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 22 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
 Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 22 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
good i have figured how to add pics here! so this is a common lizard that is shedding its skin, you can see the collar of loose skin round its neck, he was quite happy to let me stick my lens almost on top of him! Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 22 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
Mhhhh tasty knuckle! A smooth snake snacking on marks hand!, just before Mark was saying how he had never been bitten by a smooth snake, or any snake for that matter, well i think we all got bit that day, i didnt think it was that painfull, although i think i must have tough skin as i got bit a few times and it never drew blood, whereas it did make mark and paul bleed, or maybe i just wasnt as tasty so it didnt bite me hard!  Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 22 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
One more pic!  Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 22 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
Thanks! As i said i didnt think the bites hurt at all,, im not sure wherever some snakes bites hurt more than others, i should imagine the bigger a snake is it has bigger teeth so may hurt more, or maybe when i was bit the snake wasnt using full biting pressure, i think it knew that i wasnt its prey, so maybe it just gave me a warning nip rather than trully biting hard like it was trying to kill its prey. when i got bit i wanted to take a pic of me being bitten but the smooth snake didnt want to obligue and released its bite evertime i tried to get a pic, although it was happy to let me take pics of it biting my freind! one thing to remember is if you are bitten you cant pull your hand away as you risk breaking the snakes teeth, you you just have to wait for it to let go. You may possibly find grass snakes if you have ponds near you, they eat frogs and newts so if you have them theres a good chance of grass snakes being there, ide say look in the undergrowth near the ponds, look for open areas with long vegetation close by, they like to bask in the open areas but there will always be somewhere they can quickly slither away into safety,you have no need to worry about finding a angry smooth snake as they only occur in Hampshire, Surrey and Dorset. Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 23 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
I was wondering if snakes can pass on diseases, like if a snake were to bite a rat or something carrying weils disease , can it pass it on to humans? Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 24 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
Lets just hope it doesnt come to that, although it seems to me nothing can stop the hungry developers, they always seem to find a way to get what they want. Where I live there is site where lots of slow worms live and they want to build there, so they are relocating the slow worms, maybe the slow worms are happy just where they are but obviously building another grotty housing estate is more important Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 24 Sep 2007
Topic: Next week anyone up for herping?
eek, i didnt know that Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 31 Mar 2009
Topic: Natrix Murder
This is sickening Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 31 Mar 2009
Topic: Grass Snakes today.
Here is the poor grass snake, if it is indeed the same snake the injury has got a lot worse. As you can see it has become quite swollen  Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 31 Mar 2009
Topic: Mendips visit
Yesterday, Mark and myself went to a site in the mendips and met Paul, despite the weather not being all that ideal, I think we did pretty well, seeing 25 Adders (which is the most Adders i have seen in one day) 7 Grass snakes, one of which has a nasty injury to its eye  , Paul mentioned the other site we would visit later had some really big grassies, however the ones i saw at this site were the biggest I have seen! we also saw several common lizards, which seemed to have a very bright green colour, and 3 Slow worms (under tins) the other site didnt turn up any grassies but there were a few adders.All in all it was a good days herping and nice to meet up with Paul on one of his local stomping grounds. Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 31 Mar 2009
Topic: Mendips visit
Some pics from the day
Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 02 Apr 2009
Topic: Mendips visit
Awesome! shame the weather wasnt like that on the monday, still, 25 adders in one day is a record for me and also i learnt that the weather doesnt have to be that warm and sunny for snakes to be out, but it would have been great to see all those grassys, dont suppose you found the one with the bad eye? As for the measurment, it is confuisng, it certainly looks bigger than 2 foot, i recon your measuring tape is dodgy! I am going to make a seperate post about ways to measure snakes, my idea is pretty simple, string! Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 02 Apr 2009
Topic: slow worm, adders and ticked off lizard
I took advantage of the lovely weather on wednesday to do a bit of herping, there is an area just across from my allotment with slow worms and grass snakes, and i was walking the dog near the area so i looked there and found 3 slow worms, after i took the dog back i cycled to a local site with adders, slow worms and common reptiles (this site is 1 and a half miles from a urban area) well i found a few slow worms, and a common lizard basking on top of a bit of refugia, the area has a tick infestation, we always have to check ourselfs for ticks after going there, and the lizards are often tick ridden as well, as the one in the photo, do ticks pose a threat to reptiles? i know they can cause lymes disease in humans, can they cause serious harm to reptiles? ( i read somewhere that blue lizards in america have been found to be imune to lymes disease, i wonder if our lizards have the same imunity, and if one day a antidote for lymes disease could be found by studying lizards) I also saw one male adder basking in his usual spot, and a lucky find for me, a baby adder, im not to good at estimating ages but i dont think its one of last years, could be 2 years old, would this be considered sub adult, or is it still a juvenile? here are some pics. First a pile of slow worms at the first area i looked  tick ridden common lizard  Basking male adder  Baby adder  Finaly, 2 slow worms from the other area (the lizard adders and these 2 are all from the same site)  Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 02 Apr 2009
Topic: slow worm, adders and ticked off lizard
Am I right in that female snakes tails tend to be fat and then suddely taper to a thin end whereas males tails gradually taper to a point, in this case would it be right to say the baby adder is a male? Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 02 Apr 2009
Topic: measuring snakes
Does anyone have a good method of measuring snakes in the field, its hard to get the snake to cooperate to measure it with a measuring tape, i was wondering would it be a good idea to use some string, run it along the length of the snakes body, and then use a measuring tape to measure the length of string? Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 03 Apr 2009
Topic: Grass Snakes today.
Hope you manage to find her/him, heprvet, what does debridement mean? Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 03 Apr 2009
Topic: measuring snakes
Good ideas, thanks Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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Ophiuchus Member Joined: 04 Jan 2007 No. of posts: 44 View other posts in this topic |
Posted: 03 Apr 2009
Topic: slow worm, adders and ticked off lizard
So theres no easy way to tell the difference between male and female without having to look at the snakes naughty bits, something i dont really fancy doing, esspecialy with adders! although they are ussualy fairly easy to sex by there colouration when they are adults, but when they are juveniles its hard to tell. Ophiuchus *~*the serpent bearer*~* |
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