Winding Down, with Adders

Above, droppings, and below, very clear water vole prints.

I've been to the brook several times this last week and seen nothing, though the voles are definitely around - there are as many prints and droppings as ever. I know from past years this is a usual pattern, though, and sightings-wise, I probably won't get much now till next spring.

Still, it's been a cracking year for wildlife here, with good numbers of water vole signs around the usual sites, plenty of hedgehogs, and for the first time in my life I've seen slow worms and adders. The slow worms were in Ravenscar, but the adders were over in Staffordshire, just over the border. I had a guide with me as I wouldn't have known where to look, and he showed me and my son the right spots where snakes like to bask. We were privileged to find two individual females, plus several common lizards including this dark juvenile (apparently young common lizards are nearly black).

Also saw my first holly blue butterfly, my first drinker moth, my first sexton beetle and my first tiger beetle. None of these is rare, but it's nice when you get a personal first.