nature notes Wildlife to look out for in the local area Nature Notes
well-known smooth snake. The three lizards are sand lizard, common lizard and slowworm. Common lizards can live just about
I
anywhere here but, like all reptiles, love a good place for basking, often around south facing dry stonewalls and can grow to about 15cms (6 inches). they vary in colour from dark green to brown and grey and live mainly on insects. the larger sand lizard
feeds on prey such as slugs and worms and insects. It is found mainly in southern
britain on sandy heathlands. they are quite distinct from the common lizard having dark brown blotches over either a grey or green background. Our third lizard is the legless slow worm. It has evolved to be legless as it burrows into the ground. A good friend of the gardener for its diet of slugs, they prefer habitats with plenty of cover. they vary in colour from grey through to coppery brown and are hard but smooth to touch. In Devon they can be found almost anywhere but especially on the coastal path and by the moors. Adders, our only poisonous snake, are found all across britain although they are most common on heathland and grassy cliff tops. Characterised by a black zigzag marking along the length of the back, they can grow up to a metre in length and are most frequently encountered when basking. they hunt for food such as rodents, lizards etc at dusk. grass snakes tend to grow longer than adders and have
n Britain, we have six species of reptile, three lizards and three species of snake: the adder and grass snake and the less
Grass Snake
a much different colouration of dark green and black vertical stripes and spots on their sides. they often have a distinct yellow or pale collar marking. strong swimmers, they spend plenty of time in ponds where they catch their favourite prey, amphibians. the rarer smooth snake is now restricted to a handful of heathland sites in Dorset and Hampshire and has been successfully re-introduced to restored heathland in east Devon.
What to look for in August As well as the moths, provided we get some good weather the late summer butterflies should be prominent. These include small tortoiseshell, peacock, red admiral, meadow brown, gatekeeper and common blue in the correct habitats – cliff tops and hedgerows/ fields with long grass are particularly good. For the keener birdwatcher, August is also the month to catch up with some seabirds migrating down our coast which do not breed locally. Look for skuas (principally Arctic and Great), shearwaters such as Manx and Sooty and the diminutive Storm Petrel, particularly in the aftermath of a strong
Red Admiral
westerly which has displaced them up the channel. They fly close to major headlands as they fight their way back to the Atlantic. Berry Head is a favoured watch point.
Grass Snake Photo © Andrew
Curtis.jpg 55
© Andrew Curtis
Sand Lizard
Common Blue © Tim Marshall
© Mike Pennington Artic Skua
Adder © Mick
Malpass.jpg
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