A VERY Unexpected Garden Visitor

[Griswold]

I know they can eat fish, but I hope mine are too large for it - will find out in time if it decides to stay!

[Nealywheelie]

Sloworm!

[Onelasttime]

Lovely. Looks like it's having fun in the custom-made water park

[Tooks]

Awesome! :-)

[jukeboxs]

Great photos, nicely captured (especially exiting the pond). Looks like an idyllic garden you have, lovely.

[Reminds me of one of our French holidays, I regularly swam for an hour or so in our gite pool, and would often have at least a few snakes in with me for company.]

[craig1912]

Grass snake

[Neil.C]

It's a grass snake Peter - beautiful creature.

You have a lovely pond there.

[mr noble]

Brilliant spot! But, I’d be more concerned about the crocodile!

[Griswold]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Yes, it's a banded Grass Snake and native to the UK. This one is around a metre long. Looking at the first photo it looks to have a bit of a bulge just above half way, (unless it's the angle I caught it at), so has probably eaten something - likely a Frog as I can't see any fish missing. Along with Goldfish and Koi there are also Rudd, Tench and Gudgeon and all seem to be there and are not perturbed by the Snake swimming round. As soon as it senses movement it makes a rapid dash to get behind the waterfall where it stays until it feels it's safe to venture out, (often 30 minutes to an hour later). When it does climb out of the pond it heads straight for the flower beds where I'm guessing it spends most of its time.

Hopefully I'll get more pictures.

[Griswold]

Brilliant spot! But, I’d be more concerned about the crocodile!

Nah, that's just a baby at 2 foot long!





Now, this one; oh this one was a much greater challenge....

[gunner]

Had a similar visitor in our garden...

[mr noble]

Haha. Great picture! That one sure looks realistic!

[pacifichrono]

There's no way I would do that, even knowing it's fake! Filed under...You Never Know!

[unclealec]

Nah, it's a slow worm. I should know, my father used to breed them for a living.

[Sinnlover]

I picked this little fella (he was about 1m long) out of a skip earlier this year
It was on a project at London Zoo so I was not 100% sure what sort of serpent he or she was but I did not want to see it going to the tip, so I did my best Steve Irwin impression and grabbed him behind the head and pulled him out. We notified the zoo but they were not interested as nothing had escaped, so it was left to me to pick him up.
All the lads on site ran an mile from him. It was quite cold so he has very docile.

[Neil.C]

I picked this little fella (he was about 1m long) out of a skip earlier this year
It was on a project at London Zoo so I was not 100% sure what sort of serpent he or she was but I did not want to see it going to the tip, so I did my best Steve Irwin impression and grabbed him behind the head and pulled him out. We notified the zoo but they were not interested as nothing had escaped, so it was left to me to pick him up.
All the lads on site ran an mile from him. It was quite cold so he has very docile.

That's a Slow worm.

Looks like a snake but is actually a legless lizard and a native to this country.

You can often find them under piles of old leaves or grass.

[Sinnlover]

That's a Slow worm.

Looks like a snake but is actually a legless lizard and a native to this country.

You can often find them under piles of old leaves or grass.

Possibly
I have seen a slow worn and this was a fair bit bigger in length and girth than I remember them being
Either way I hope he is still alive in and around the old aviary at the zoo.

[Neil.C]

Possibly
I have seen a slow worn and this was a fair bit bigger in length and girth than I remember them being
Either way I hope he is still alive in and around the old aviary at the zoo.

Left to their own devices they can actually get quite large.

My son started his herpetological adventure with Slow worms and some as they got older were very sizeable.

I think I have seen virtually every breed of snake around my house over the years.

He ended up as the largest Reticulated python (worlds longest snake) breeder in Europe with most stuff around 18 foot or more.

[Liner33]

Yeah the first is certainly a grass snake , the second although it has a similar colour to a slow worm it has the wrong head and tail and is about (Assuming 1m) twice the size that slow worms get so I'm not convinced

Note the blunt tail of the slow worm

[geordie]

Nah, it's a slow worm. I should know, my father used to breed them for a living.

You're categorically wrong.

[Saint-Just]

That's a Slow worm.

Looks like a snake but is actually a legless lizard and a native to this country.

You can often find them under piles of old leaves or grass.

Looks too big to be a slow worm. Could be a smooth snake or another grass snake.

[Sinnlover]

Looks too big to be a slow worm. Could be a smooth snake or another grass snake.

I thought it was a grass snake, which is why I was not to worried about picking it up. If it had been an escaped Taipan I might have thought differently.
I think it was too big to be a slow worm and looking at the distribution it is unlikely to be a smooth snake. Definitely not an Adder.

[verv]

Beautiful.

Can confirm I would have screamed and ran away rather than getting photos.

[unclealec]

You're categorically wrong.

And you sir are categorically right, but possibly unaware of the predilection of TZ members to identify anything organic and without wings as a slow worm. A search will throw up some seemingly imbecilic identifications, and hopefully the original post that started this peculiar response.

[geordie]

And you sir are categorically right, but possibly unaware of the predilection of TZ members to identify anything organic and without wings as a slow worm. A search will throw up some seemingly imbecilic identifications, and hopefully the original post that started this peculiar response.

In which case i apologise unreservedly for missing the tongue in cheek