When out walking, sometimes I get a sense of what animal will be in a certain place. Even if I have not been to that place before I can sometimes tell, or feel, by the landscape, what creatures I might see. This surprises me at these times because I realize just how in tune with nature I really am.
Neil and I were out one morning at a place I had not been to before. He had long been saying to me that he would like to show me Puttenham Common, so finally we got round to visiting the area.
It was a bright sunny day when we walked out onto the grassy common. The land was of dry bents and wooded areas; the soil being very sandy. Within a few minutes of seeing this new place I felt the urge to say “I would not be surprised if we see an adder round here.” I do not remember Neil’s response to that, but literally a couple of minutes after I saw an adder coiled in the grass bathing in the morning sun. I think Neil was more amazed at seeing his first adder than in what I just said about seeing one. I encouraged Neil closer. The snake began to hiss and slowly slid off among the dry, curled oak leaves.
In Cornwall one sunny day, I was looking out across a big reservoir. I walked back by a stone wall that separated the hedges from the road. I glanced at the wall and had a feeling inside me that said there would probably be lizards all over this wall. At this point I gave the wall a wider berth and kept my eyes fixed on it as I moved slower in my steps. I was almost at the end of the run of the wall by this time. One last glance back and I caught movement. I went closer to the wall to find a common lizard bathing on the warm stone. After this I decided to go over the length of the wall again. I ended up finding many different variations of common lizards and much more sightings. The one that I remember most was a slightly green common lizard because it was unusual to me having seen many brown ones.
Another time I found a slow worm in a place where I predicted one to be. I turned right instead of my usual left at the Great pond one day. The path was overgrown from little usage and I had a string feeling running through me. I kept thinking “there is bound to be a slow worm here somewhere, it is perfect habitat.” I moved on up the path in the warm sun through the cold shade of the trees. I looked for a sunny spot among the bluebells. Half concealed by the herbage there was a slow worm gliding into cover.
On the north downs I take a regular path along the downs way. There is a side path that leads into a new plantation of spruce. In between the young trees there is a path with long grass and sunny edges. I came creeping along it one afternoon because I had a thought going over and over in my head about there being lizards at the spot. Lizards like the bases of trees in the sun for resting on. One such tree had a tussock of grass growing around the base from the ants nest that was underneath it. I heard a rustle among the tussock and went to find out what it was. After some time of rifling through the grass and chasing about on my hands and knees, I pulled a lizard out from the clump and held it firmly until it was content to just sit in my hand, as is often the case. My sense for reptiles was right again. Even more surprised I was to find that the lizard had a tick on the side of its neck. I never thought they could get ticks, but it somehow got a grip on him in between his scales. Very carefully I took the tick off the lizards neck and released them both. Maybe I should have left it there thinking back.
This path is a great lizard and slow worm community. Many can be found when the weather is warm and sunny. On another day I was creeping down this path and was coming to the junction of a crossing path. Staring at me from the long grass was a sizeable grass snake resting there. My heart began to thump when I realized what I found. The grass snake is a creature that I like very much and don’t often find. I always seem to find them by mistake, whereas the adder and slow worm and lizard, my feelings tell me where they will be.
Of course, I could never always sense where to find reptiles. About ten years ago, when I had only just begun to go out for walks into the countryside in my spare time, I never even thought I would see a lizard in my lifetime. I thought they were so hard to find. I never knew about the sights and the ways of the country then. I never knew about the ways of the woods and meadows and fields then. I began going out there every weekend from then on. Along the top of the south downs I was coming back from a long walk around that time. It occurred to me on that day that there is always so many things that move in the undergrowth when I walk by. For some reason I decided to try and locate the source of the rustle that I heard as I passed by an ash bole off the path that was uneven from the big lumps of flint and chalk tufted out by the plough on the adjacent field. I scratched my hands feeling about in the brambles trying to make the creature move again so I could see it. The next moment a little lizard appeared on the bole of the ash tree a couple of feet away. Its head was tilted in a very comical way as it looked to see what I was up to. I was terribly excited and just looked back at it for a while. After some time I thought that I had a good look at it and thought that I would like to try to catch it before I went on my way again. I knew lizards were known to be fast and I had no idea that I might actually catch it. I shuffled my body into a position I thought would give me a better angle, and then I began to put my hand towards the trunk with the lizard on slowly, intending to make a fast snatch at it at the last minute. The lizard saw what was coming and jumped off the trunk to fall into the safety of the herbage. As lizards do after disturbance, shortly it climbed back up the trunk into its sunny spot the rest again. I made another grab at it again, but this time it dashed round the back of the trunk. This went on for a while. Either the lizard jumped off into the brambles or it ran round the other side of the tree and jumped down into cover.I then had the idea that I would get a stick and push it through the brambles to encourage the lizard out. This was amusing to me to see the little fellow come scrambling out of the brambles and up the rucnk, probably fearing the stick to be a snake. The books were right, they are fast. But what happened next is strange. I put my hand even more slowly towards the lizard. I felt guilty of wanting to catch him and feel what it is like to hold him because his head always on one side as if he knew what was coming. My hand came closer so slow and was right upon him. He never moved as I rested my four fingers firmly on his body against the bark. In this way I was able to pick him up and feel him in my hands. He was content to sit after an initial struggle. And not long after this, I returned him to the ash bole, and got up to walk back, feeling that this was my biggest accomplishment in life.
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