The Herping season comes to a late end so time for a new Camera

My trusty old Nikon d80 was getting a bit long in the tooth its been a fantastic camera but it was time for an upgrade. I considered getting a full sized sensor camera, but having looked at reviews the Nikon d7100 came up as being equal to the d610 and was considerably cheaper so I have plumped for one of those. Not really had much chance to use it yet and with the weather at the weekend there didn't seem to be much wildlife showing but my trusty old Little Owl came up trumps.

 View across Daledyke

 Fieldfares and Redwings

Season coming to an End

October is the month when you have the last chance to see reptiles here in the North. Grass snakes and slow worms have already curled up for the winter. However Adders and Common Lizards can still be seen. At one of my most reliable sites cattle have been allowed to trash vegetation, it is supposedly now being fenced off but we will have to wait and see what damage has been done in spring next year. Anyway I could only find one female and one lizard in good conditions, compare this to last Octobers post before it was being managed for conservation (what a great job they are doing). There were also lots of dragonflies around.

Back Up North to find a Grass Snake

Following on from the 7 species of reptiles seen in Dorset I completed the full set with Grass Snake Natrix natrix on my home patch. Again Matt came across and we headed off to the nearest Grass Snake spot and quickly saw 2 perhaps 3, unlike last time they were in good condition having recently shed. We then headed over to an Adder Vipera berus site and found 2 males with a neonate Common Lizard Zootoca vivipara en-route. The next day we headed over to Merseyside to look for Sand Lizards but could only find juvenile Common Lizard, Smooth Newt Lissotriton vulgaris, Common Frog Rana temporaria   and Common Toad Bufo bufo. We also saw a few interesting insects.

All photos © Carl Corbidge

 Above 3 same Grass Snake

 Golden Ringed Dragonfly

 Emerald Lestes

 Male Adder

 Common Toad

 Common Frog and Smooth Newts

 Smooth Newts

 Above 2 Northern Dunes Tiger Beetle

 Darter Spp



Sandwich Terns

A Little Herping in Dorset

From August 10th-17th I had a week in Swanage Dorset with my daughter Sasha. Obviously I couldn't go all that way to the best herping county in England without having a look for some wildlife, but my main aim was to try and get some decent photos of Sand Lizard Lacerta agilis. I also did a fair bit of cycling ( you have to do something whilst waiting for a teenager to rise from their pit) as well as visiting some more touristy places. The weather was ok most of the week but rain Thursday afternoon enforced cancelling a trip to Brownsea Island. In the end the only reptile I didn't find was Grass Snake.

 view from caravan to Purbeck hills

 Swanage

 Above and below Smooth Snake

 Above and below Slow Worm

 Sand Lizard

 Male Adder

 Old Harry Rocks

 Female Common Blue

 Gatekeeper

 Common Wall Lizard

 Above male and below female Green Lizard

 Viviparous Lizard

 Heathland

 Fallow Deer

 Common Blue Damselfly

 Emperor Moth Caterpilar

 Female Adder

 Lulworth Cove

 Newly hatched Sand Lizards

 Lulworth Range

 ?Keeled Skimmer

 

Sand Lizard