On Friday last week whilst working on the Common we were
fortunate to come across a couple of late Adders enjoying the last of the
autumn sunshine. It’s been a great year on Skipwith for Adders, with some good
counts in the early spring, then after a quiet spell in the autumn it was
pleasing to find one of this year’s young last week – confirming successful
breeding. Curled up beside the small young was also a large adult, with them
both basking on a favoured bank amongst the bracken. There probably won’t
be too many more days left with suitable temperatures from now on, which means
the snakes will head deeper into the hibernacula for the winter. Once they go
into hibernation, we’ll then look forward to spotting them again on nice sunny
days from mid-March.
Aside from our reptile species it’s a great time of year at the moment to enjoy Skipwith
Common NNR, and experience the sights, sounds and colours of autumn. It’s been
a busy time for us too, working on the site controlling the birch scrub,
helping the shepherd manage the grazing livestock, repairing boardwalks and
managing the birch woodland. Among it all we’ve been able to enjoy its wildlife – we've been watching Jays busily (and nosily) stock piling and burying
acorns for later in the winter, listening to Green Woodpeckers yaffling, and spotting
the last of Common Darter dragonflies buzzing around the pond margins. We were
also fortunate to spot this beautiful Comma basking in the sunshine on the bark
of a Silver Birch tree, whilst Ruby Tiger caterpillars and Gorse Shieldbugs
were hiding among the spines of the gorse scrub.
As always when visiting the reserves please leave any
sightings in the log books provided, thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment