All 6 native reptiles in 1 day

[Vipera]

I have a tendency to post really detailed and long winded reports and i think that may put some people off from reading them, so I will try to keep this short and to the point!
Me and 2 friends managed to see all 6 native reptile species in 1 day, i have done that before but never managed to get them all on film, i manged it this time! we also saw plenty of wall lizards, only the green lizard evaded us.
Here is the video from the day, the female adder is on the move but you can see her ok, the smooth snake footage is very short because i only wanted to get it on film and i did that, we saw 8 smooth snakes that day, some i got better footage of these but the one in this video was the first one. the common lizard might be a bit hard to see because of poor video quality, same for the sand lizard, its not immediately obvious because its hiding in the undergrowth, but the markings are clear enough.
Hope you enjoy the vid!
YouTube - ‪All 6 native U.K. reptiles‬‏

[GCN lova]

wow thats great work finding all those reptiles!

[Vipera]

Thanks! It was a excellent day and i think we couldn't have picked a better day for , the weather was perfect, well it was a little gusty at times but compared to the weather the day before it was perfect.
I think without the wind we would have seen more.
I have uploaded a better video of the sand lizard, I should have used this footage for the all 6 video but i decided i wanted the video to show them as we first found them, and not being sure if the sand lizard was going to stick around i took the first video from further away so i wouldn't disturb it but he didn't seem to worried so i then got in closer, and moved to the other side so the sun was on him.
YouTube - ‪male sand lizard‬‏

[UB4 gardener]

just out of curiosity, why the need to pick up the slow worm, grass snake and smooth snake in your other video? a video of what it does naturally is more appealing than a snake in the hand. how easy is it to get the license?

Chris

[Deb London]

I enjoyed the video Vipera. How on earth did you manage to spot the Sand Lizard?

[Vipera]

Originally Posted by UB4 gardener

just out of curiosity, why the need to pick up the slow worm, grass snake and smooth snake in your other video? a video of what it does naturally is more appealing than a snake in the hand. how easy is it to get the license?

Chris

a lot of the time when we find the snakes/slow worms they are not out basking, they are under refugia. I prefer to move the reptile from under the refugia before putting the refugia back down, if its just a piece of felt i dont mind putting it back down with the reptile left in place, but some of the tins are quite heavy. There is one program that i remember with Bill oddie and some expert, that shows bill oddie putting the slow worm back under the tin and then putting the tin down on top of the slow worm, even giving the tin a nice pat to firm it down, its my personal opinion that this is not the way to do it. if you have seen the amount of reptiles i have seen crushed under tins you would understand why i have this view.
Also part of what we do for our surveys for the ARC involves recording the sex of the reptile, obviously for adders and slow worms you can tell quite easily by their markings, but its not always that easy with smooth snakes. Most of the time we dont handle them for long, its just a case of moving them while we put the refugia down, having a quick look and then releasing it, most of the time they go strait back under the tin. The videos are just to show people to try and raise interest and awareness, i think that most everyday folk would like to see the snakes up close and personal rather than a quick glimpse of a tail disappearing into the undergrowth which is more often or not how you see them, in fact out of all the smooth snakes i have seen i have only ever seen one out in the open. Occasionally they do hold there ground and i do prefer to video them like that. You will notice that the ones we did find in the open in my all 6 in one day video we did not handle, they were left as they were spotted, so to reiterate, the ones we handled were because we were moving them to put the tins back down and as we had them i took the opportunity to film them. i hope this explains my reasons well enough.
as for the license, i had gone out on a few occasions accompanied by a friend who already held the licence, he put in a good word for me to the relevant person, that i showed a keen interest and was able to identify the reptiles and that i understood the importance of what we are doing to help the reptiles and amphibians. i am not sure of the criteria involved in obtaining the license now, as i got my license several years ago.

[Vipera]

Originally Posted by Deb London

I enjoyed the video Vipera. How on earth did you manage to spot the Sand Lizard?

Good question, it was actually my friend who first spotted it, it was actually slightly easier to see with my own eyes, on the camera its not as clear!

[UB4 gardener]

thanks for the detailed reply Vipera, and keep up the good work.

Chris