Peter Jones Wildlife blog

More Smooth Snake surveying in the nice weather. A female Adder disturbed at close range was a highlight. Also a Slow Worm and a few Common Lizards ,one of which sat tight for a pic. Also Meadow Grasshoppers in abundance.

Some bat detector outputs in the screenshot, but the highlight of this survey was a very close Otter swimming past me, right into the beam of my torch.. majestic! Originally shared by Peter Jones Completed my Bat surveys for the year with a Waterways survey of Daubenten's Bats at the River Test. amazing numbers with over 60 "passes" during the two surveys. Many will be the same bat, but even so, that's a lot of activity! Also, plenty of Natterer's in the area, and the screenshot below of Daubenten's (top) and Natterer's (bottom) illustrates the more curved sonograms of Daubenten's, compared to the straighter Natterer's calls. Not much in it though, and it is fortunate that their behaviour differs so radically, with Daubenten's hovercrafting over the surface, Natterer's taking head shots at anyone walking near them!

Northern Wall Brown, a new Butterfly for me, found in Kandersteg, Switzerland

A week on holiday in Switzerland, and aside from Nutcracker, Bonelli's Warbler, and Crag Martins, the area did have a strangely Scottish feel to it, with Crested Tit, Fieldfare, Golden Eagle, Crossbill, and Red Squirrel. What I wasn't expecting was to walk into a Scottish nightmare of trying to separate Scotch Argus and Arran Brown butterflies! As far as I can tell, the first two are Arran Brown, with prominant white lines under the hindwing; the second two are Scotch Argus with dark underwings.

Two Grasshoppers from the New Forest heathland this morning. The first, predominantly green, insect was a Meadow Grasshopper, the second, I'm pretty sure is the rare Heath Grasshopper. Should be able to find another in the same area in the coming weeks, and confirm 100%.

After a brief glimpse of my first UK Adder last month, I got a better look at one in the New Forest. This was found during my first New Forest Smooth Snake survey, for which I am now trained up as a volunteer. No Smooth Snakes seen, but this Female Adder (Brown zigzags, as opposed to black on a male) was a nice consolation.