Sunday 26 June 2011

Snakes Alive

On the way back from the morning's ringing session at Kessingland Sewage works I stopped off at Lound church to take some photos of Claire's arrangement for this year's flower festival. Walking to the church I was confronted by Rita, a well known Lound resident who excitedly told me about a snake that had been attacking a large toad residing in her garden. Her description was clearly that of a Grass Snake and she said that she had managed to scoop it up and when I went round it was lying coiled up at the bottom of her empty wheelie bin.

Being rather fond of her toad Rita asked me to release the snake nearby so I extracted it from the bin and carried it to some wet scrub near the village pond where it was released unharmed. Grass Snakes are one of the few animals that eat the Common Toad Bufo bufo which are distasteful due to their toxic skin secretion.

Grass Snake Natrix natrix

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