Tag Archives: Norfolk

Chinese Year of the Snake, English adders

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This video is called Happy Chinese New Year of the Snake 2013.

This video about adders says about itself:

Vipera berus (huggorm) is the only venomous snake in Norway! I have made a video about this facinating creature. Too many people are killing them as soon as they see one. Maybe I can help change some minds?? Filmed in Ølen and Etne, Norway!

By Peter Frost in Britain:

The legless neighbours who mean no trouble

Thursday 07 February 2013

I always try to get up to the north Norfolk coast in winter. If you are lucky enough to get one of those crisp bright winter days as we did a week or so ago then there is no finer place on earth to blow away the winter cobwebs.

You will share the coast with thousands of winter birds and a few real surprise visitors and rarities.

My biggest, however, wasn’t a bird. It was snakes – more than I have ever seen at this time of year.

Adders are often spotted surprisingly early in the year. They are often seen in January or February on sunny days when the winter sun warms patches on the sandy paths and the adders emerge from their winter hibernation to bask.

My wife Ann pointed out 2013 is the Chinese year of the snake and suggested that was why there were so many this winter.

The adder is our commonest snake and sadly our most misunderstood – it is the only native venomous snake in Britain.

Adult males are rarely over two feet long, females might be a few inches longer but reports of adder sightings will often claim they are twice this long. Five and six foot claims are not unknown.

Most adders are distinctively marked with a dark zigzag running down the length of the spine and an inverted “V” shape on the neck.

Males are generally white or pale grey with a black zigzag. Females are a pale brown colour, with a darker brown zigzag.

A few are entirely black and are sometimes mistaken for exotic escaped snakes.

Adders are not aggressive animals. They will only bite as a last means of defence, usually if caught, cornered or trodden on.

No-one has died from adder bite in Britain for over 20 years. Only 14 deaths in the last century – 50 times more people die from bee and wasp stings.

With proper treatment, the worst effects of an adder bite are nausea and drowsiness followed by nasty swelling and bruising in the area of the bite.

Most people who are bitten were picking up the snake. Treat adders with respect, leave them alone, admire them from a distance and they will do you no harm.

The best time to see them is in early spring as they emerge from their hibernation dens.

Come April, the males will have shed their dull winter skin and are keen to mate – they rush about looking for females and occasionally wrestling with rival males.

The snakes writhe around each other in an impressive way, often covering the ground at great speed.

This behaviour was called the “dance of the adders” and was reckoned to be a mating ritual between a male and a female. We know better now.

Following mating, females seek out a suitable place to give birth, often travelling half a mile or more. Live births take place in late August to early September.

Adders do not lay eggs – young snakes are born live, a few inches long, perfectly formed miniature snakes.

During the autumn, adult snakes follow scent trails back to the hibernation site. Knots of snakes gather in sites they have used for years.

Adders usually eat small rodents – such as voles – lizards, frogs, newts, and occasionally young birds.

A full size adult will eat very little, perhaps no more than a dozen voles in a year.

Like all snakes, adders eat their prey whole. Flexible jaw bones and ribs mean they are able to swallow large prey whole.

Young adders are threatened by a variety of predators, including birds of prey – some are eaten by adult snakes. Others may be killed and eaten by rats or killed by cold while in hibernation.

They are protected by law against being killed, injured or disturbed – still every year many are killed by unthinking people.

Please don’t be one of them. Adders are a handsome addition to our countryside, especially in the Year of the Snake.

Chinese New Year in England: here.

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Birds of Norfolk, England

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This video is called The Feathered Marsh – Cley Marshes nature reserve, Norfolk.

By Peter Frost in England:

The marvels of Norfolk’s winter

Thursday 10 January 2013

The quaintly named village of Cley-next-the-Sea looks particularly good when the early morning sun paints the sky with pale watery pink streaks.

Silhouetted against the dawn is the handsome tower mill that dominates the narrow high street.

The sharp but lovely smell of smoked fish hangs on the morning air from the smoke house just opposite the mill.

Oak chippings have been smouldering all night preserving yesterday’s catch of herring, mackerel and sprats.

We’ll be back later in the day, when the shop is open, to buy some kippers for tomorrow’s breakfast.

High above us a skein of geese make a series of huge V formations across the wide Norfolk sky. The spectacular sight and their honking call always makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

It may be icy cold this morning but these geese have flown down to relatively warmer climes from Arctic Russia and Scandinavia’s frozen winter wastes.

Despite its name, Cley has not been “next the sea” since the 17th century. Much land has been won back from the North Sea.

In fact it’s a decent walk across the marshes to the sea. In summer these marshes are a riot of colour with bright yellow horned poppies and other marshland plants.

They are also rich with samphire, that delicious vegetable that is the taste of summer holidays on this coast.

The poet Rupert Brooke was in Cley early in August 1914, staying with the Cornford family who owned the mill. News came that Britain had entered the first world war.

Bacause of the visit classics professor Francis Macdonald Cornford and his poet wife Frances named their son Rupert John after Brooke.

John Cornford would join the Communist Party, fight and die with the International Brigade in Spain and be remembered as one of Britain’s best known communist poets.

However, we aren’t here for communist history or indeed poetry. We are here for the birds.

The Cley marshes are internationally important for their populations of rare breeding and visiting birds.

Cley Marshes have been in the care of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust since 1926, making it the oldest county wildlife trust reserve in Britain.

Today it has a spectacular new eco-friendly visitor’s centre containing viewing areas and exhibitions. The view from the centre across the marsh to the sea is almost unbelievable.

There is a cafe, toilets and the inevitable shop making this a comfortable and convenient way to watch the amazing birdlife of the coast.

Around the centre all year round you can see avocets, Bearded Tits, bitterns, marsh harriers, spoonbills and many more common birds.

In winter visitors include Brent and Pink-footed Geese, wigeons, pintails and many waders.

Wintering gulls might include glaucous or Caspian gulls as well as more common species.

Birds of prey will include hen harriers, merlins and short-eared owls.

In recent years little egrets have become quite common on the coast hereabouts.

Exciting winter passerines include snow and lapland buntings, twites, shore larks, water pipits and waxwings.

And it isn’t just the seashore and marshes that have birds worth watching.

Winter too is an excellent time to enjoy the area’s woodland and farmland birds.

Common buzzards, woodcocks, barn owls, woodpeckers, kingfishers, grey wagtails and flocks of winter thrushes, tits and finches are all to be seen on walks from the centre.

Some species like the exotic Egyptian goose have become so common they have become a real pest.

Most years see some real treats for both twitchers and we mere mortals.

A black brant or two perhaps, or some other rare goose and a few other surprises such as a great grey shrike, a rough-legged buzzard or an Arctic redpoll might be about.

In mid winter daylight hours are short, but don’t let that put you off.

Wrap up warm and get out into the winter landscape. This is the most magical time to enjoy north Norfolk’s coast and country.

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