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Adders mating in Derbyshire: |
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John Newton Senior Member Joined: 19 May 2005 No. of posts: 151  View other posts by John Newton |
Posted: 20 Apr 2007 I went out after tea yesterday, to get some new Zv photos, at a site where they are usually fairly numerous. To my surprise, there were no lizards present, but incredibly I was stood there looking at a mating group of adders - 1 female entwined with 2 males, and a further two males within feet of them. I would not normally have been looking for adder here, so yet again always expect the unexpected.
John Newton South Yorkshire ARG |
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Adam Long Member Joined: 28 May 2004 No. of posts: 17 View other posts by Adam Long |
Posted: 20 Apr 2007 Great stuff John! Am I right in thinking this isn't often observed in Derbyshire? The female is very similar in colour to one I photographed a couple of years ago - stunning deep warm brown really setting off the red eyes. Just had a quick check though, not the same individual. |
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John Newton Senior Member Joined: 19 May 2005 No. of posts: 151 View other posts by John Newton |
Posted: 20 Apr 2007 Hi Adam Saw mating only once last year, and this is the first time this year, albeit discovered totally by accident. Just returned from the same site, and there was nothing at all - not too surprising if the event is over. This site is probably about 1 mile away from those that you are familiar with, so not much chance of it being the same one that you saw. It would'nt be too difficult to come across other mating groups given enough time - its just that my time is split between South Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Merseyside, so it doesnt always fit ! John Newton South Yorkshire ARG |
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Adam Long Member Joined: 28 May 2004 No. of posts: 17 View other posts by Adam Long |
Posted: 20 Apr 2007 Now I remember - it wasn't mating as such but I read somewhere that the 'dance' had never been observed in derbyshire. Any truth in this? Sounds like I need to put some more time in anyway! Not sure why, but my adder hunts this year haven't been very successful - only saw any on one visit out of four so far. Not sure whether it has anything to do with the warm and very dry weather, or just that I haven't been trying hard enough! Have you noticed the same? Cheers, Adam |
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John Newton Senior Member Joined: 19 May 2005 No. of posts: 151 View other posts by John Newton |
Posted: 21 Apr 2007 The adder surveys at emergence sites this year set off well, and as mentioned previously, the latter half of March/early April were dismally unsuccessful, for myself, Chris and others. Dont really know why, but its easy to postulate continuous 'drying' north easterley winds, lack of rain, or whatever. Right now, as the photos show, males are all shed, mating under way, animals dispersing but still fairly local to emergence sites. Not just adders, but grass snake, locally, are 'missing' in some of my favoured sites, and even amphibs. appear to have been affected. Several GCN ponds down in numbers, one palmate pond showing no animals at all, although my own garden pond is very healthy albeit with reduced GCN numbers. I'm running a NARRS amphibian training course today, and the ponds being used for this are virtually devoid of any animals at the moment, so not looking good for tonights torching session !! Strange year, but not unduly worrying I guess, cos these things happen, and by next month it could all have caught up again. John Newton South Yorkshire ARG |
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Wolfgang Wuster Senior Member Joined: 23 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 326 View other posts by Wolfgang Wuster |
Posted: 21 Apr 2007 At my main site on Anglesey, it's been an excellent season - record numbers of males seen out when temps finally rose in mid-late March, mating is now over and the snakes have dispersed to their feeding grounds, and are now hard to find. On the downside, hardly any females, and also no juveniles seen even in places where gravid adders were hanging out late last summer, which is a bit of a worry... Wolfgang Wüster School of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Bangor http://sbsweb.bangor.ac.uk/~bss166/ |
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Alan Hyde Senior Member Joined: 17 Apr 2003 No. of posts: 1416 View other posts by Alan Hyde |
Posted: 21 Apr 2007 Hmmmm, Last year I reported that my main site at Brookwood was not quite right. All the adders had emerged from hibernation partly dispersed. Later on in the year there was some sort of chemical spraying done there and this year in three visits i've only seen one male adder. I'll be going back next week and i'm hoping things will look better O-> O+> |
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Vicar Senior Member Joined: 02 Sep 2004 No. of posts: 1181 View other posts by Vicar |
Posted: 24 Apr 2007 [QUOTE=Alan Hyde]Hmmmm, Last year I reported that my main site at Brookwood was not quite right. All the adders had emerged from hibernation partly dispersed. ... and this year in three visits i've only seen one male adder. [/QUOTE] Hi, Al This sounds bad. That was a lovely adder site, one in three visist sounds awfully low. Do you remember we had hassles there a year or two back with snake-bashers? I wonder if they persisted on the site. I'll try to swing by more often to keep an eye out. Steve Langham - Chairman 
Surrey Amphibian & Reptile Group (SARG). |
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AGILIS Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 No. of posts: 694  View other posts by AGILIS |
Posted: 24 Apr 2007 Hi Steve and Al do you mean you have people in your area killing adders and probably cas as well Keith
LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID |
- Adders mating in Derbyshire |
