Un-seasonal slow-worm
24th December 2007, MondayWhilst visiting Hawkhurst today I found my latest ever slow-worm, a juvenile animal lying on the road near some allotments. This record is possibly beyond the edge of the RX area but there may be other reptiles out and about in our patch during spells of unusually mild weather.
These reptiles do well in gardens and allotments. They will use open compost heaps but in my experience they are most likely to be found in patches of grass left to grow into a haycrop for wild flowers and insects. Our lawn, in Northiam, which is sown with wildflowers harvested from a Wealden haymeadow, is normally left uncut between April and July, but with the increasing slow-worm population we have allowed patches of long grass to stay until late September before cutting them. Small pieces of carpet, placed over patches of long grass in the summer produced a maximum of 8 animals at any one time. They were photographed (see above) because each animal has a distinctive pattern of spots on the side of the head and we want to see which individuals return in future years.