how many snakes have people seen

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Mrjacks0n

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as tread really , have been around horses ages as i am in my 50 s now and never seen any till 3 weeks ago , saw 2 grass snakes coiled up on a log next to each other and today my dogs alerted me to a adder curled up next to a hedge in the grass, i know they are pretty harmless but i am afraid of them and normally poo pick in flip flops in summer, as you do lol. anyone else seen any 2 other horse friends have had a few encouters in the last few weeks also ,must be the heat , eeeewwww .
 
Mrjacks0n said:
as tread really , have been around horses ages as i am in my 50 s now and never seen any till 3 weeks ago , saw 2 grass snakes coiled up on a log next to each other and today my dogs alerted me to a adder curled up next to a hedge in the grass, i know they are pretty harmless but i am afraid of them and normally poo pick in flip flops in summer, as you do lol. anyone else seen any 2 other horse friends have had a few encouters in the last few weeks also ,must be the heat , eeeewwww .
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Grass snakes are harmless (although I don't like any snake). BUT ADDERS are poisonous.:eek::eek::eek:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/species/Vipera_berus

I have seen three in North Devon this year when walking through the village
 
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I saw this one yesterday...

DSCN2837.jpg


He wasn't too happy about having his picture taken though!
 
I saw an adder when out on a hack a couple of years back. Thankfully I saw it before the horse did and headed off in another direction, horses arent renowed for their love of snakes!

It was asleep on the gravelly sandy track.

Never seen a grass snake tho, very exciting to see that too.

Adder is the only poisonous one but they are very wary and unless you tread on it you would be fine. maybe plimsolls tho? :-))
 
In this hot weather I saw a grass snake, which did not bother me too much, but then there was an adder sun bathing on the muck heap. That did give me the heabie jeebies so now I am a bit cautious walking through the long grass to the fields (although there is no grass in the fields!)
 
I saw my first and only one, a Boomslanger in South Africa last year, it was about 8ft long, and after we had poked the bush it had gone into with a big stick we found out they are really poisonous with no antidote, oops. Never seen any over here though.
 
roo2012 said:
I saw this one yesterday...

DSCN2837.jpg


He wasn't too happy about having his picture taken though!
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ARE YOU FOR REAL???? Tell me you didn't take that pic? Bloody mad if you did.
I hate snakes I'm scared sh!t less off them and would run a mile if I saw a live one. Seen 2 grass snakes so far lucky both where dead in the lane.
 
HeatherJ said:
oh that's definetly one for the album ;) or a photo comp :D x
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Thanks! I actually posted these in Soapbox yesterday and someone else suggested entering it for the countryfile photo comp, I'm not a photographer at all, just had one of those point and shoot cameras! I was so fascinated by its vivid red eyes that I probably got closer than was sensible.

Here are another couple of photos from yesterday:
DSCN2833.jpg

DSCN2835.jpg
 
Oooh, gosh. The snake in the picture is an adder, and quite a big one. Red eyes and its markings give it away. Great pic but I'd have run a mile! :confused::o
 
Thats one huge adder, I think your mad taking them pics but I agree the 1st one is very good and will win a wildlife comp. It looks like he might stike, I would have **** myself tbh. Bit scary it's in the grass like that I would expect him to be out in the sun. Wouldn't want to stand on him would you.
 
There do seem to be a lot around this year. My mum has had to fish 2 out of her fish pond right next to the house. They were just swimming around in there, presumably to cool off. Both grass snakes but one was about 3 feet long....eeeuuurrgh. Not a fan!
 
Excellent photos.

We have a fair few grass snakes here - I'm sure if I move a few logs on our (huge) wood pile I'd find some. We also get adders but less frequently, see at least one per year and we're on the edge of suburbia (housing estate the other side of field next to us)
 
Sadly I hardly ever see snakes - and I would love to see some more! :p

Please don't worry about UK native snakes, they really are harmless, and even though adders are venomous, more often than not they'll move before you see them, and are more frightened of people than you are of them :)

Only thing to worry about, is escapees or those pets that are released when people can't be bothered with them anymore - now thats worrying :eek: :D

That is a fab picture too! :)
 
Eeek, great photo of that adder but I wouldn't have wanted to have been that close to it personally... We did see a grass snake on the road a couple of weeks ago, dead unfortunately having been run over not long before we saw it by the looks of things.
 
I haven't seen any for a few years but our woods are known for it. We saw a grass snake of ridiculously large proportions there a while back but they're super shy so quite a rare thing to see.
 
I grew up in Thailand and we had LOADS of snakes, lots of cobras....once a black spitting cobra hatched eggs under out club house so they were everywhere.

Havent seen any snakes in england...will now keep my eye out for them!

Would love to see some :)
 
Well I have the best sighting! We have indoor stables and one of my horses is stabled fairly near the middle of the barn on straw. She is a very brave girl in general, but I came back from the school with my other horse and she was running around her box snorting, which is very unusual. So, in I went to try and see what was bothering her - she was basically pointing to the middle of her stable saying "look, there's a great big monster Mum!", but I couldn't see anything and figured she must have scared herself by flipping up one of her mats or something, so tried to calm her down a bit and thought I'd leave her to it while I got on with things. Well, she was practically screaming "HELP! There's a monster in my stable!", so in I go again and there's a massive Grass Snake trying to climb up the wall!! Bless her little heart she was being so brave really and me being a stupid human couldn't work it out! So, spent the next hour trying to catch him in a deep bed of straw - he was very quick and very big! I'm glad I am not scared of snakes as I'm not sure what I would have done!

We took him for a little walk and put him down by the lake where I hope he has stayed and my brave girl went back to bed! I am completely paranoid now that he's going to come back in and as soon as I can afford it I am taking her off straw just incase! She seems to have got over it though bless her!

I have seen a few grass snakes sunbathing on the muck heap this year and we used to get loads of adders at our old yard by the muck heap, but we never had a problem with them - I think you would be very unlucky to bitten by one to be honest - the horseflies are much worse ;-)!
 
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I threw a stick into the a pond and my dog raced in and retrieved what he thought was the stick, but turned out to be a grass snake having a quiet swim :D

Pony wouldn't go past a pile of bricks and threatened to rear and got quite agitated. I thought as he was making such a fuss I had better have a look and came face to face with an adder :eek:

But most hilariously, I was walking up Pilsdon Pen in Dorset and thought I would climb up through the bracken round the side rather than using the path.

When I got to the top there was a sign and I thought "oh dear, it is going to say no entry or bog off" anyway it said
"Danger Adders" :D:D:D
 
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