Rainy reptiles

Well the weather today turned out better than forecast, but it was still rather wet for the poor 4 & 5 year olds who were visiting today to explore a variety of habitats and discover the wildlife therein – we did manage to get in the river while it was still low enough first thing, albeit with somewhat reduced activity boundaries, but the real surprise of the day came in the meadow shortly before lunch. Too wet to do any sweep netting (it had started raining again just as we headed off there from the river so we had detoured via the woodland and ivy south hides until it stopped again) it was dry enough to find a quiet spot to sit down amongst the wild flowers and enjoy the sights and sounds, so that is what we did – most saw damselflies or the odd spider or bumble bee, but a lucky few saw a lovely grass snake curled up amongst the oxeye daisies before making off into the tree’s lining ivy lake. It was actually one of three I ended up seeing today, another in the wild play area in willow wood and the last one outside ivy south hide on the usual fallen tree, all obviously warm enough to be out and about today despite the weather.