My first Adder photos of 2011

[JaySteel]

With the cloudless sky yesterday the male Adders were out basking fresh from hibernation. I've seen the odd one for the last week or so on this site but today there were four adult males. Even though the temperature was just 9 degrees it was warm enough for these resilient reptiles.


Please check out other Adder photos from today on my website here:
http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotogr...m/adders-3.php

One of the Adders I saw was ready to slough so I'll be visiting this site again soon and keeping an eye out for freshly sloughed males in their high-contrast bright mating colours. Thanks for looking.

Best regards,
Jason

[Reefbreak]

really nice photos, i came online looking for advice about finding some grass snakes and your photos put a smile on my face

now to find my grass snakes

[Tobyh]

Lovely photos indeed, a subject i'd like to get out and see more of.

TobyH

[Za]

Nice shots Jason, I think I will go and see if they are out and about at the place where I regularly go to see them tomorrow if the weather holds out.
And Reefbreak good luck with your grass snake hunt, I find them a lot more elusive than adders.
Za

[Reefbreak]

Thanks ZA, you didnt help my confidence at all hahaha

[Adam Cheeseman]

Took my first pics of a small male adder for the year today. Won't be anywhere near as good as those at the top of the page. It was being quite shy and was all curled up. Didn't help that I couldn't any closer than I did.

Cheers,

Adam

[Mark_b]

It doesn't look like this adder is next to its hibernation site? In fact it looks like it has been placed on a log surrounded by short grass? (Similar to your previous adder shots). Please forgive me if I am mistaken though! I really disagree with disturbing/handling wild animals unless it is necessary (not just for a ‘nice photo’), even more so adders that have just come out of hibernation. They are currently preparing for mating, so any disturbance could lead to reduced fitness.

As I said in your other thread .......... "I always take pictures of adders in situ, where I find them, compared with grass snakes they dont tend to move off unless you disturb them heavily. I can usually get some nice macro shots and the background of the vegetation structure really frames the photograph."

[JaySteel]

'Cut grass' like here you mean?? As I've previously explained...both sites that I usually visit have cut grass right up to the bushes and shrubbery that the adders bask on the edge of.

[Mark_b]

It’s fair enough the site you show above having short grass and adders basking along it. Unfortunately the shots at the beginning of this thread clearly show that there is short grass in the background of the pictures so unless you decided to crawl into those bushes and are now looking out onto the grass then I don’t really get your point?

It’s apparent from looking at the reptile pictures on your website that nearly all the shots are not in situ and thus you must have captured and placed the specimens there.

I’m honestly not trying to cause any trouble, I was just interested in why you insist on using this method (as it really isn’t hard to get shots of reptiles in situ, no offence but in situ shots look much better) and to try and encourage you to just have a go (I promise the fun of getting a good in situ and the final result will give you much more enjoyment).

I also want to enlighten other members of the forum that they aren’t going to find reptiles just sitting in the middle of short grass or completely exposed basking on top of a log like your pictures. Furthermore I want to make it clear to them that it isn’t necessary to catch these animals to get pictures of them.

[JaySteel]

You have PM.

Best regards,
Jason Steel