Sloughed Skin                       

I found this "sloughed" skin (pictured above) by the side of my main logpile. The logs are stacked on wooden pallets and then each stack is covered over with more pallets and, finally, by tarpaulins. This makes an excellent habitat for the local mice population. Not surprisingly, their predators live around there too.

The Grass Snake is the largest indigenous reptile in the UK, typically males reach 100 cm, females up to 130 cm. The skin pictured above measured around 68 cms (27") a subsequent sloughed skin came in at 46".

My first encounter with a live snake was on Easter Sunday 2010. I pulled back the tarpaulin from the top of the logpile to find a mouse chewing its way through the rotting stump of a post. The mouse was actually inside the post, gnawing its way along. Lying right by the post was, I thought, a long damp stick. As I was wondering why I had left a stick there, it suddenly arched to one side and then the other, finally flinging itself to the ground at my feet. Or, rather, where my feet had been until I jumped into the air. The snake then slithered quickly off under the pallets, leaving me in shock and the mouse chewing away with utter unconcern. As the business end of the snake had only been a couple of inches from the unsuspecting rodent, I assume that I had just interrupted lunch.

Grass snakes like to lay their eggs in things like compost heaps or piles of woodchip where the warmth of the rotting vegetation can incubate them. I have several large piles of grass which seem to provide this requirement. We also have a large pond and vast numbers of frogs.

2011 Sightings:

      Skins                       Snakes

          2                               2     (live) 

                                           1     (dead)