But wait, there's more...

...to share on our Norfolk holiday which has probably been our best break wildlife-wise. This should (fingers crossed) be my final posting on our holiday encounters. Before I go any further, I must mention that I did write another post earlier today. Please click here if you'd like to read it. It was about the various plants we saw there. But moving on, I think its the perfect time to talk about the leftover stuff from my Norfolk story, or "The final chapter which wraps everything up"!

Perhaps the best thing about the spring countryside in Norfolk is the large variety of butterflies and bees that can be seen around the wild flowers seen in my last post. On one particular walk during the week, I came across a Painted Lady butterfly which had landed on the edge of a quiet country road taking in some sun. It was there for a good 2 minutes, so I was able to take a good few photos of it, including some close-up shots taken at ground level. My favourite of the lot is seen below.

Taken slightly further away from the butterfly...
And the view from above:
At the beginning of the week, we were told by the cottage owners that Adders could be seen in the grounds of the house. Specifically,they said they were seen on some dry grass patches near the boat house on the lake. The boathouse area is pictured below. Even from the picture, you can tell that the area is quite overgrown. I was very interested by the news and was determined to see them at some point during the week.

Towards the end of the week, sure enough I did spot a snake bathing in the sun on the dry grass. My first impressions were that it was an Adder, but with a closer look, I concluded it was in fact a Grass Snake. When it saw me it moved to the edge of the lake and sat there while I took a couple of photos. It then swam a small distance across the lake to a small island nearby. I was very happy with the sighting, and it was only the second time I had seen one. It was great to see it, if a little unexpected.

Whilst we were out on a walk, we saw these sheep who must have been extremely hot in the sun. Phew... I'm finished with the Norfolk holiday postings now. All in all a great holiday in terms of wildlife. Thanks to the wildlife for, well, being there whilst I watched, and also to family who made the trip so fun. Off to bed now!

Swimming Snakes!

I went down to the south coast last Friday and Saturday, and we spent a day around the Titchfield Haven nature reserve. We fed the ducks for a while, off the top of a bridge. They were very hungry, so it was a good job we had quite a lot of duck seed. The image below shows 2 female Tufted Ducks. They are less tame than the greedy Mallards, and took less of the food too. The reserve is marshy, and has a wide variety of birds. Unfortunately, we didn't have the chance to go around properly.

But as we were feeding the ducks, my dad spotted something swimming across the water that I thought was an eel at first (I am new to waterlife). But it was in fact a Grass Snake. My face was probably hysterical when I saw it and was trying to get my camera out frantically. I did just manage to get a picture of it before it swam annoyingly into the reeds. The strange thing was that the ducks followed the snake in the water. Maybe it was safety in numbers! The picture is quite blurred, and you can only just see the snake swimming in the murky water. At the time we didn't know what it was, but after looking in a wildlife book in the visitor centre, we concluded that it was a Grass Snake. If you look carefully, the snake is in the middle of the picture.