As I don’t seem to be finding time to write a new post but have managed to take a few pics over the past few weeks, here is a quick summary of Cotswold wildlife during the month of May in pictoral form!
These are all photos of wildlife I saw during my butterfly transect a couple of weeks ago. Dukes seem to be having a good year with plenty of nice lush cowslips benefiting from the mix of sunshine and showers we are having at the moment. Below is a picture of a froghopper imaginatively named the ‘red and black froghopper’ that I also took on the same day.
The picture above is of a female adder with whom I shared a lovely moment last week. I went out to try to get some pics for the photo ID project and wasn’t having much luck until I saw a very snake-like tail disappearing into some dry leaf litter. I could hear the snake continuing to move around in the leaves so I decided to sit down quietly and see if it reappeared. Sure enough a few minutes later a head popped up a couple of feet away from my boot and surveyed me curiously with plenty of tongue-flicking to try and work out whether I presented a threat. She clearly decided I wasn’t because she then came out into the open and curled up next to me on the bank to bask in the spring sunshine. Whilst on the one hand I was absolutely delighted to be sharing such a magical moment with a wild adder clearly so relaxed in my presence, on the other it presented me with a rather uncomfortable dilemma. How long was I going to have to sit there for before I could move without disturbing the adder? While I deliberated on this I managed to sneak a quick photo which, having looked at since, I think is of a young female called Taj who was first photographed in 2013 as a juvenile. Luckily my dilemma was solved after about 10 minutes when a rabbit bustling about in a nearby bramble patch sent Taj swiftly back under cover. I didn’t see any more adders that morning but I had a big smile on my face for the rest of the day!
A Cotswold Corner 