A Mammal First and a few other bits and bobs

Whilst searching a new area for adders where there "are definately adders there" but no one has seen them type place I came across a Leveret. After consulting a few sources I have decided it is a Brown Hare Lepus europaeus it was in an area where both species can be found, but Mountain Hare  Lepus timidus leverets appeared a bit plainer. This is the first one I have found, it sat there motionless hoping not to be seen, quite well camouflaged. The adults spread out their young, a strategy to stop predators finding a whole litter and indeed I couldn't find anymore. There was an adult DOR moutain hare a couple of miles down the road.

 Above 3 Brown Hare Leveret © Carl Corbidge

An Unfortunate Mountain Hare © Carl Corbidge

Back to one of my adder sites and I found 2 males, 1 female and 3 juveniles which gives a minimum of 4 and most probably 5 juveniles at this site. After seeing a Little Owl Athene noctua on a old shed on a number of occasions, it finally stayed put and allowed me to get some shots there were also a few other birds making there way onto the moorlands. I had another look at the Peregrines in the city, where they seemed to have paired up

 Above and Below 2 different juvenile Adders © Carl Corbidge

 Little Owl © Carl Corbidge

 Above and Below Peregrine © Carl Corbidge

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More and More Adders

With some decent weather over the weekend (in fact too nice) I went out to do my first big Adder Vipera berus survey. I set off early on Sunday and went to my first spot where i've had a max of 5 so far. I quickly found 7 males and 3 Viviparous Lizards Zootoca vivipara. I moved on expecting some big numbers but only another 1 where I would normally expect another 7-8. I headed off to another area, here I met Tracy and Paul regular surveyers who were also down on numbers for the day. Tracy had seen a snake the week before that she thought was a female but didn't get a good enough look. Sure enough it was out along with a male and a juvenile, one further male gave 12 for the day, we searched some other areas but it was way too warm.
I was off work on Monday and went out again. I had a total of 16 for the day 13 males, 1 female and 2 juveniles, 13 snakes were additional to the day before, giving a total of 25 for the 2 days, 21 male, 1 female and 3 juveniles. The female is the earliest date that I have had one by about 10 days and it was interesting to see that 3 young are still associating with her (assuming she's the mum).
There were also lots of birds back up on the moors, Skylarks, Curlews and one of my favourites Lapwings Vanellus vanellus.

 3 males together © Carl Corbidge

 Female © Carl Corbidge

 1st Juvenile © Carl Corbidge

 2nd Juvenile© Carl Corbidge

 3rd Juvenile © Carl Corbidge

 Lapwing © Carl Corbidge

Frogspawn© Carl Corbidge

Now For The Amphibians

With above average February temperatures and some light rain, conditions were ideal last night for amphibians to start moving to their breeding ponds. With bucket, torch and camera I set off to roads surrounding a couple of upland reservoirs. At the first road, Common Toads Bufo bufo were on the move, this is an early date with Easter normally the peak time for toad movement. There were already a few road casualties so I scooped the living animals up and transfered them off the road. Up to the next reservoir a couple more toads but the main species were Palmate Newts Lissotriton helviticus of which I transfered about 40 off the road. 2 Common Frogs Rana temporaria made up a trio of amphibians.

 Male Common Toad © Carl Corbidge

 Male Palmate Newt © Carl Corbidge

 Female Palmate Newt © Carl Corbidge

 Part of the nights tally © Carl Corbidge

 Above and Below Common Frog © Carl Corbidge



Well it looks like the weather has turned again, which won't affect the amphibians too much, common frogs have already started spawning so there is no way back for them now. However the reptiles will have to ride out the weather until it improves again. Yesterday and Thursday there were a couple of windows of opportunity. I managed to get out Thursday afternoon, expecting adders I only saw 5 Viviparous Lizards, I think I may have been too late in the afternoon for snakes,  plus a big black cloud seemed to be following me around putting basking sites in the shade. Yesterday afternoon there was a brief respite in the weather and I managed 4 adders including a very large battle scarred male.

 Female Viviparous Lizard © Carl Corbidge

 Male Viviparous Lizard © Carl Corbidge

 Male Adder A © Carl Corbidge

 Male Adders B and C © Carl Corbidge

 Male Adder B © Carl Corbidge

Male Adder D © Carl Corbidge

First Male Adder of The Season

Today I met up with Matt Wilson to have a look for the first Adders of the year (although Matt had 2 yesterday). The weather forecast was poor and on arrival it was cloudy with a cool breeze. We had a quick look without success and so decided to have a look for some Roe Deer Matt had seen yesterday. No Roe Deer, but we flushed up 2 Woodcock Scolopax rusticola and saw 5 Crossbills Loxia curvirostra. After a couple of hours the sun came out briefly and along with it one brave male adder Vipera berus. As quick as the sun came out it went back in and that was it for the day.

Crossbill © Carl Corbidge

 Above and Below Male Adder © Carl Corbidge

Back to my side of the Pennines today and with a sunny start to the day I was at one of my Adder sites at 10am ish. I quickly found 2 including a regular blue male which scarpered as soon as my shadow crossed him, (but he was back out 10 mins later) another male was tucked well in. More surprising was a confiding male Viviparous Lizard Zootoca vivipara, in the same spot as a confiding male from last year. I found a further 3 male adders, the clouds then dropped and the temperature dropped considerably and the snakes gradually retired back into their hiding places.

 Viviparous Lizard  © Carl Corbidge

 Male no 1  © Carl Corbidge

  Male no 2  © Carl Corbidge

 Male no 3  © Carl Corbidge

The Adders Should Be Stirring Soon

The recent cold spell has probably put the emergence of Adders back a couple of weeks, but hopefully I will see one before the end of February. It will be interesting to see if Matt Wilson's Adders (a little further north) are out at the same time as the ones around my neck of the woods. I've also got a new site in South Yorkshire to have a look it (fingers crossed).
In the meantime i've been photographing birds at a feeding station, all pretty common ones but I was pleased to get some decent pics of a Great Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopos major, I also got a record shot of a Bank Vole Clethrionomys glareolus.

Black Headed Gull © Carl Corbidge

Blue Tit © Carl Corbidge

Chaffinch © Carl Corbidge

Coal Tit © Carl Corbidge

Bank Vole © Carl Corbidge

Great Tit © Carl Corbidge

Great Spotted Woodpecker Female © Carl Corbidge

Moorhen © Carl Corbidge

Reed Bunting Male © Carl Corbidge

Reed Bunting Female © Carl Corbidge

Robin © Carl Corbidge

Yellowhammer Male © Carl Corbidge

Yellowhammer Female © Carl Corbidge

 Male Crossbill © Carl Corbidge

The Buzzard below was hovering which is a feature of Rough Legged Buzzard but not entirelt sure if it is or not.