smooth operator...

...the snake, not me, of course.

What a fabulous day. The sun shone continuously and there was almost no wind. Despite the air temperature being chilly, it felt much warmer than the previous couple of days. We made an early start (just in case the cloud was going to pile in again later) and went up to Morden Bog and Wareham Forest to continue my hunt for interesting bugs. On my wish list today, was the gorse shieldbug and the heather shieldbug. Once again, I didn't find either but we did find plenty of common green shieldbugs and some damsel bugs.

As we started our walk back towards the car, I was scanning the south facing heather banks in the hope of a basking adder and was elated to find, instead, this beautiful male Smooth Snake, Coronella austriaca soaking up the rays. It would be difficult to describe how made up I was!

The smooth snake is extremely rare and confined to South East Dorset, South West Hampshire and a pocket on the border of East Hampshire and West Surrey. It is non-venomous and completely harmless but should not be touched or disturbed as it is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

We found so many interesting subjects today and have marked our map so we can go back and find them again over the next few days...