Can anyone identify this snake please?

[LWBLA]

Just spotted this in our pond which has fish and frogs in it. Can anyone tell me what it is please?

[aeshna5]

A Grass Snake- guess you have plenty of potential food for it. I'd be pleased to have this in my pond!

[LWBLA]

Thank you for your quick reply. I thought it might be a grass snake. Not all that keen on having it in the pond- would rather keep our fish! Do you happen to know how big a fish they can eat?

[ViperaBerus]

Depends on how big the snake is. I wouldn't worry about it. They don't eat much over a year and would certainly go after easier prey than your fish. It won't have much impact on your fish and frog stocks.

[LWBLA]

It's about a metre long - see photo.
No offence, but we built the pond to keep fish; not have them eaten by a grass snake! I know they are pretty rare and we certainly wouldn't dream of harming it; we'd just like it to slither off and leave our fish and frogs alone.

[tom00_uk]

it will do you a favour in picking off the sick and weak one that could well die off in the colder months,

its not going to get the healthiest individuals

[King Edward]

It's a lovely looking snake. What kind of fish (and how big) do you have?

[ViperaBerus]

Originally Posted by tom00_uk

it will do you a favour in picking off the sick and weak one that could well die off in the colder months,

its not going to get the healthiest individuals

It's true. We have a a large population of grass snakes in our garden and they visit the pond and bask at the back of it during the early morning a couple of times a year. They do take frogs occasionally, but they have never taken fish in the ten years I have been living here. They will actually take the weaker frogs and make the population stronger. And they don't take too many during a year anyway. They also have a wide range in which they roam, so you probably won't even see it again, and if you do, it will be rare.

Your pond will have a bigger threat from birds. The netting won't stop an eager heron.

[LWBLA]

We have goldfish and shubunkins. The largest are about 12cm but we have a healthy population of babies that are about half that size or smaller.

The net is new, put on after a couple of visits from a heron a couple of months ago. It didn't take any fish, but we decided to put it off and the netting was described as anti-heron so I'm not overjoyed to read you think it won't put a keen one off. We'll have to hope the one that visited isn't that keen.

Our greatest threat to date has been cats, which I would expect as we are a suburban garden. I was pretty surprised to find a heron on our patio! And even more surprised to find a grass snake as, from what I've read, they are meant to be rare.

My husband saw the snake slither out of the pond yesterday so I'm hoping it's had its visit and will go somewhere new now. It may be lovely, but we like our fish!

[tom00_uk]

if you are going to have a net on there, especially of its year round ensure its unlikely to result in animals getting stuck and needing rescuing, vet treatment for resulting wounds from the micro-filament or death