Wednesday 13th June 2007
Old Lodge - Slow Worm
It was a beautiful hot day all the time we were stuck in our offices. The moment
we decided to shoot up to old lodge in the Ashdown Forest it started to get
gloomy and drizzly. That didn't really ruin anything though, because we soon found a
female slow worm (Anguis fragilis) under the same corrugated iron where Robert and I had found one
recently. You can
definitely see why they are called slow worms, as it didn't hardly move a muscle
all the time we were looking at it. If this had been any other animal it would
have shot off as soon as it saw us.
We also had great views of roding Woodcock and there were a couple of Nightjars
churring too. There were woodpeckers and tawny owls calling and we saw one large
bat. We didn't get to see any nightjars in flight though, even though we were
searching hard until nightfall.
The Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis)
You can see that the sides of the slow
worm are much darker than the rest of it.
There is also a very thin black line
running down the centre of its back. This all indicates that this is a female.