Identifying a British snake
Wow. We had a grass snake in our garden. We watched it, photographed it, video’d it and generally marvelled at how it moved like a snake a bit but also just sunbathed a lot in front of the compost heap where we keep the children’s outdoor toys and I have a water butt.
I LOVE living in the country.
The sighting of a snake was so exciting for me that I called my mum who asked me to identify it properly (using the lovely countryside books I once found in the local skip) to make sure it wasn’t a viper/adder. It wasn’t and I now realise it was a very young snake as fully grown grass snakes can be over 100cm in length.
I’ve just read that female grass snakes often favour compost or manure heaps to lay their eggs in Autumn as the heat of the rotting pile acts as an incubator. This explains why we found it just by our compost heap but will I ever be able to use the compost if I think it might contain snakes!
April 18th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
yes well, while you were doing that, we’d have all been running around screaming!
July 15th, 2007 at 1:15 am
We live in a village outside Nottingham. This evening 14.th July our next door neighbour asked me to identify a snake he had in a plastic bucket. It was a grass snake ,about 18inches long, and it had regurgitated a capsule containing a frog, which it was attempting to re eat. He had rescued it from a cat which was playing with it in the centre of the road. The snake appeared none the worse for the experience and has now been released in a safer spot.
July 15th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
our dog was going mad, barking at a big flower pot. We moved the pot and out came a grass snake. we screamed and went to get mum, by that time the snake had gone off somewere. we didn’t know if it was posinas so we looked it up on the net and found this site.
August 30th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Seen a snake in our garden in Hornsea (East Yorkshire) for the second time now with
a frog (holding on by its leg) in its mouth. My wife clouted it and it let go. Will try to capture it and release somewhere….maybe Hornsea Mere close bye.Looks to be a grass snake ….I hope
October 16th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
on holiday in haslemere, surrey. walking the dog in a small wood,it had been raining very hard. the path was paved but full of the first big leaf fall. the dog walked right over this HUGE (all of 18inchs) snake. scared me silly. shouted at the dog who then stopped, wanting to know what i wanted. SHE HAD ONLY STOPPED BY THIS HUGE SNAKE. very frightened by now. the snake we found out later was nothing more than a grass snake. what a plonker i felt. it slopped off into the undergrowth unconcerned by the panic it had created
December 24th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
what do you think this is? It is occupying our offices!
December 24th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Sorry: I see my last comment dd not include the url for some reason. You can see it here:
http://www.hssl.co.uk/snake.jpg
February 12th, 2008 at 1:21 am
Omg i was at the beach and i was walking along a cliffside with my step sister Jess after we got a drink , I Stopped for a minute to ask her if we should get a drink for our lil bro and Jess screamed because their was a Adder snake behind me ( Blue with Black Spots ) I Turned and saw it and screamed as it hissed at me and i ran on leaving Jess alone as im a fast runner by the time she caught up with me , I Was back at the drinks shop and told the waitress and Aprantly they are harmless and i felt like a total Prat Lol. Plus their was a cute surfer
May 13th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Doing a wee bit of DIY in the garden….building a green house. Lovely hot, late spring day, aprox 2o’clock in the afternoon. My eyes noticed somthing moving off to my left. I turned to see the largest GRASS SNAKE ever. 80cms from tip to tail and about 3/4cms across. This is the first time that I have ever seen one of these magnificant creatures.
We have a small stream running down the side of our house and the snake was making its way along the side of the river bank.
It looked to be a chocolate colour with a cream band around its neck. It was moving quite slowly and gracefully. I understand that they are protected, I was wondering if anyone can tell me how many there are in a colony, its unlikly that it will be alone, any help would be great to know.
We live in HEREFORD just on the Welsh border.
May 13th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I’ve just seen what I think is a snake in my garden, it was a mustard colour, thin and probably about a foot in length, although I didn’t see the whole thing. It moved off at an incredible speed. Any ideas?
May 14th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Hi, Pam’s snake looks like a corn snake to me, but the RSPCA should be able to help you more. We have seen two snakes in our garden, both brown with a black stripe running down their backs. As I have children, I would be grateful if anyone could identify them for me, I think they are smooth snakes, not adders, but I would rather be sure.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:19 am
About 5:00pm last night we saw a snake in our garden, we are treying to identify it. It was about 7 inch long and cm thick.The colour was dark brown/grey, it looked very similar to the colour of a grass snake but what is confusing is that it had two ‘V’ shaped RED marks on the top of it’s head.
We live in a grassy/woody area at the side of a disused canal.
The snake was on top of rocks/slates.
Can any one help me to identify this animal??
June 27th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
At home in Norfolk, I just saw a Grass snake sitting in the Sun by my backdoor. It was about 18 inches long and looked like a grass snake ( i hope ). First one i have seen here, and i have lived here for 10 years. Lets hope i see more.
July 1st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
spotted a snake in a garden were im doing some decorating in the county.
was about 3 foot lon and say 3-4 cm wide with bright lellow triangles zig zag things, didnt get a picture as it went with speed.
ANY IDEAS???
July 1st, 2008 at 9:27 pm
ADDER?
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 am
Hi, was out for a walk in Tilgate Park with my son, some friends and their kids, when on the pathway in front of us was a small snake. I am not sure what type of snake it was as it had a thinish, greyish-ash black colour body with a baby blue colour ring around it’s neck. At first I thought it might be a grass snake, but was confused by the blue ring around its neck. Anyone know what this might be? It quickly disappeared into some nearby bushes, so was not able to get a photo. My concern is that this snake might not be native to Britain, but may be someones disgarded pet which could possibly be dangerous or poisonous? Tilgate is a very popular public park, and plenty of people and little kids visit there everyday. Anyone have any ideas on what type of snake it could be?
Thanks!
July 5th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I live in a village in North Bucks. I live next to a field with a stone wall. An hour or so ago I noticed my cat observing what I thought was just the ‘bricks’, but have just investigated something she was obviously ‘playing’ with. It was a young snake, probably only a foot long, which was desperately trying to fend off the cat! It lashed out a couple of times, but then after a prod from the cat’s paw, it went into a frenzied wriggle/coil action and then just feigned dead. I picked it up ‘with a stick of course’, and it didn’t move, it just had it’s mouth wide open and was motionless. Facinating, but it was initially scary to find this in the garden. Anyway, I put it over the wall into the field, as my cat was obviously wanting to ‘play’ more with this little fella! Hence being on this site! Needed to identify it - it was a grass snake.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
yesterday i found a snake in our composite heap, i am not sure what type of snake it was, but it had zig zag markings down it’s body, i didnt stay long enough to see it’s head but the part of the body which was visable was very thick
July 7th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I was kneeling taking some notes of a grave in Chapel Lawn Shropshire (for family history) when I felt something cold on my ankle ,jiggled my foot a bit but it was still there so I got up and saw this snake looking at me it just stayed there! it was about 12 to 14 inches, thin ,cream coloured ,2 brown stripes running either side the full length of body ,2 beady black eyes and I think a black snout but couldn,t be sure as I was off like a shot .It was a lovely looking thing but I can,t find any pictures that look like it does anyone know what it could be?
July 14th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
I have just seen a snake on my driveway - we live in the country in North Wales. It is about 14 inches in length, thin, cream coloured and has a chocolate brown stripe down either side of its body. Can anybody enlighten me to the type of snake it could be. I have searched corn snakes and cannot find anything like it!
August 8th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
saw a grass snake last week, was large at least 90-100cm long, yellow band on the neck, followed him across our local recreation ground before he/she dissapeared down a hole under a fence post, managed to get a great video on my mobile phone (5mins long) used to catch them as a kid in the fields that back onto my house, first time in 10 years I’ve seen one and never that big!!
September 4th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
We have just found a snake in our house!
We live in a village in Norwich, and it was on the carpet near the front door!
I have put it in a pet carrier to identify it, and quite sure it is a grass snake - about 2.5 feet long and 1.5cm diameter, brown, with a yellow band across its head!
It really freaked us out, something you don’t expect to find indoors!