Several years ago i was working in a large country house bordering our local golf course, (the course is actually part of the New Forest) but to all intensive purposes is private and rather exclusive, between the golf course and the field belonging to this house there is an untouched strip of woodland which has been that way for as long as i remember.
One day whilst i was having a break, the decorator and myself decided to have a stroll around the field and he noticed a group of Adders sunbathing on an old stack of wood. There were around 6-7 of them, one of which was enormous and a dull dirty yellow in colour, i have never ever seen an Adder that colour before.
As we watched them, the large one started moving slowly through the grass which was around 6-9 inches in height towards me, i lost sight of most of him or her but for the rear quarter of the body which was still on the logs, then i noticed a hissing noise which got louder as this reptile moved towards me, so i steppped back a couple of paces and the hissing stopped so i guess that was a warning to stay away.
The decorater mentioned to the owner about the adders and unknown to me at the time, the owner asked if he would destroy them, as he was worried his kids might get bit, in fact that was not a bad idea as the kids were the most obnoxious kids i have had the misfortune to meet, especially the spoilt brat of a son, however that is another story.
Later the decorater mentioned to me that he had killed them all except the dull dirty yellow one which got away, that really annoyed me, why move to the forest if you are going to destroy the wildlife?
Later. the ground workers moved a large oil tank, underneath were a nest of Voles, great care was taken not to disturb them.
A few days later, one of the Voles was dead on the rear doormat, guess what, the daughter had got a cat for her birthday. I am not going to mention what happened to the cat when i came across it but i rather think it decided to live elsewhere.
Anyway, back to the Adders, all the smaller ones were normal colours and size, but the large dirty dull yellow one, assuming it was an Adder, was around a metre in length, I have often questioned in my own mind if this was an Adder or something else, but whatever it was, it, by its actions seemed aggresive , which to me is also unusual for an Adder, i suppose it could have been protective of the others but i am really only guessing.
If anyone has a greater depth of knowledge on Adders than mine, a reply would be appreciated.
BK
Re: Adder Colony 
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