Grass Snake

This year there have been several sightings of a grass snake Natrix natrix on the site. Unfortunately most of the sightings have been because it has been caught up in netting :-( This is Ted's photo (Thanks Ted!) from when he freed it rom Sarah's netting. It looks a bit the worse for wear - it may be the same snake which Robert had freed prior to that...

A couple of weeks after that we found it caught in our strawberry netting. So, 12th August 2013 was the first day in my life that I ever touched a snake! It was nice and smooth - not as smooth as the slow worm but still very pleasing to the touch.

However, it was stinky and even worse when it did a horrible runny poop down my boots <bleah>. After a lot of struggling - I hate the way animals never understand when we're trying to help them - we managed to cut it free. It was curling up in knots trying to escape (hence the lack of a photo from me!). Then we put it down on some rough ground nearby and (the final part of this tale is gross) in front of my eyes he regurgitated a toad - aarrgh, nasty!

So, thinking about it, we're less keen on having grass snakes on the site - they eat our friendly toads and get themselves caught in netting all the time. Though, it was great to have seen it and held it.