Male and Female adders

[Gue Jam Fowsid]

Hi all,

Here are a few shots from a nature reserve in Surrey. I spent all day looking for these guys and suddenly was surrounded by around four individuals. It was amazing. The shots are not brilliant but you can see nice examples of male and female colouration......


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These two seemed to be courting with the male (left) eventually rubbing himself along the length of the female.


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Male adder


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Female adder

You can see that the zig zag pattern in the male is black and alot more conspicuous than the female's. Also the labial scales (lip) in the male are almost black and white as opposed to the lighter colours in the female.

I felt honoured to be in their presence. But I don't think they were too concerned with me as they seemed to have other things on their mind!!!!

Next time i'll take a pair of pruners to take out any foreground clutter. That gorse is very spiny......

[Kymba]

Great Photo's is nice to see a photo of Both sexes together

[Gue Jam Fowsid]

It is nice to see them together. I usually see one or the other. I guess I was very lucky on this particular occasion.

[demicav]

Brilliant photos! Looking at the two sexes together I can see why you thought all my pics were of males even though I thought the brown ones were female. Seeing them side by side you can really see the difference. Thank you for sharing them with us all, they are lovely.

[rlchew]

Originally Posted by Gue Jam Fowsid

Hi all,

Here are a few shots from a nature reserve in Surrey. I spent all day looking for these guys and suddenly was surrounded by around four individuals. It was amazing. The shots are not brilliant but you can see nice examples of male and female colouration......

You can see that the zig zag pattern in the male is black and alot more conspicuous than the female's. Also the labial scales (lip) in the male are almost black and white as opposed to the lighter colours in the female.

I felt honoured to be in their presence. But I don't think they were too concerned with me as they seemed to have other things on their mind!!!!

Next time i'll take a pair of pruners to take out any foreground clutter. That gorse is very spiny......

Great photos and you sound as excited as I was when I saw an Adder at my local nature reserve this spring.

I fully agree with your point about foreground clutter .... it does get in the way of the perfect shot .

Richard

[Za]

The female is very well camouflaged,I like the contrast between the two.
I hope to see a live one soon, after finding a dead one on Wednesday.
Good luck with the pruners, I`ve had too many close encounters with gorse!

Za

[Gue Jam Fowsid]

Thank you for all your comments guys. When I first see one its usually because they are fleeing and so I here them (or see them leaving a basking spot). Its at this point I intend to use these pruners to prepare the area for my picture. I tend to sit down and if i'm very still (with camera at the ready) they will usually return to the same spot.

I will keep looking and keep you informed of anymore encounters. There seems to be alot of us who have come across these amazing reptiles this year. Fantastic.

[nightshade]

I used to see the females sunning themselves quite often some looked
to be very large snakes