A quest to see all British reptiles in a year

As a reptile enthusiast East Yorkshire is perhaps not the most productive place to live. Only four species occur in the county and at times even these can be difficult to find. Fortunately, over the past couple of years I have discovered several sites where Grass Snakes, Adders and Common Lizards can be observed easily if weather conditions are right. Slow-worms in Yorkshire still elude me.

In 2008 I had a great reptile year. I saw my first Grass Snake of '08 at North Cliff Woods in late March while out birding with a mate.

Several visits to Allerthorpe Common near Pocklington revealed many Common Lizards and a couple of Adders (below), although numbers of the latter seemed lower than previous years.



The odd Common Frog was also seen.



The popular birdwatching location of Spurn Point proved reliable for Common Lizards, especially around the Chalk Bank hide, while this individual was seen one afternoon in September at the Raptor Watchpoint in Wykeham Forest, North Yorkshire.



Grass Snakes showed well into October at Tophill Low Nature Reserve, near Driffield.

Further afield

For as long as I remember I have always wanted to explore the Southern heathlands in search of Sand Lizard and Smooth Snake, but for several reasons never actually got round to it. In June this year I finally decided to make the effort, and combined a trip to visit the girlfriend’s family in Essex with several days in Dorset.

My plan got off to a decent start with a trip to Rainham Marshes, Essex on the first day of the holiday. The weather was overcast, although humid and warm. About five minutes into my walk I lifted a piece of tin to find an adult Grass Snake laid out underneath.  A second, smaller individual was seen swimming across a dyke several minutes later.

Marsh Frogs were croaking from most locations around the reserve, but only one was seen well. I was unable to locate a Cetti’s Warbler calling from dense scrub, but had better luck with a Lesser Whitethroat.

The afternoon was spent at a restricted site along the Thames in Tilbury. A good friend of mine manages the reserve and previously I have seen Adder, Grass Snake, Slow-worm and Common Lizard all on a tiny pocket of land in the shadow of the power station. Unfortunately the persistent rain meant only four Slow-worms were found, all under tin. Still, two species in one day was better then I usually manage in Yorkshire.





A couple of days later found me in Boscombe, Dorset watching Common Wall Lizards (below). Good numbers of these creatures were found late in the afternoon basking along the wall bordering the path of the Portman Ravine. Very attractive to look at, the individuals in this population appear to be the green-backed variety, typical of the North Italian subspecies, and are considered to be introduced.  Nonetheless, I welcomed their addition to my UK reptile list.



The next day, a trip to Arne RSPB introduced me to my first ever Sand Lizard. The weather had turned very hot by this point, and I was surprised to see the female out in such high temperatures. My only complaint is I didn’t manage a record photo.

It was difficult to miss my mammal target at Arne as Sika Deer where everywhere. A Water Vole was also noted, although there was no sign of any Dartford Warblers.

Fortunately, good numbers of Dartford Warbler were located later in the day at Studland Heath, along with most other heathland reserves thereafter. Unfortunately the same couldn’t be said for reptiles.

The high temperatures (I have to blame something) limited sightings to a couple of disappearing lizard tales at several of the locations I visited. An early morning walk on Parley Common (a well known reptile hot spot) yielded only Roe Deer, Dartford Warbler and dog walkers.

Radipole Lake lived up to its reputation as the place for Cetti’s Warbler. I also got my best view ever of Bearded Tit. No sign of any Grass Snakes.

Luckily I had a back-up plan (or cheat!) up my sleeve. I requested site information on www.herpetofauna.co.uk and a local herpetologist kindly agreed to meet up with me and take me to a private site in search of Smooth Snakes. The site was in fact a quarry, parts of which was still very much in use. As the temperature was in the early-twenties, I wasn’t overly confident in finding reptiles under tin. I couldn’t have being more wrong!!!

Under the first piece of corrugated iron we found an adult female Smooth Snake (below). Finally I was able to realise my dream of seeing this beautiful creature in the wild. I wasn’t disappointed. Further tin produced three more Smoothies, along with three Slow-worms.



 

Later in the afternoon an astonishing two Adders and three Grass Snakes were found under a single square of iron on a bank of heather! I was told that all three snake species are often found together under this particular sample square. I was happy with two!

As the temperature began to drop, several Sand Lizards (below) began to appear, including a stunning male that hung around long enough for me to get my first half-decent view of the species. A nearby female allowed me to compare the visual differences between the two sexes.



Although Common Lizard is present at the site, they only occupy a small section. With so many other reptiles around I wasn’t too bothered about missing out on the final native reptile of the holiday. After all, there are good populations in Yorkshire, including one not far from my house.

I was finally dragged away from the heath a very happy boy. Not only had I seen some great reptiles on my last day in Dorset, my knowledge of these creatures had increased ten-fold thanks to a very enthusiastic host.

A detour on the way home gave me my final treat of the holiday. However, I did start to worry about the extent of my reptile obsession when after ten minutes of watching the Black-winged Stilts at Neumann’s Flash in Cheshire, I started scanning the sun-drenched fence posts for basking Common Lizard.