Vibrant Vipers (Part 1, Spring Males).

Adders are one of the most charismatic members of our fauna. 

There can be few species which reside in the British countryside that are more stunning than the adder. This rather stocky little viper has a history steeped in superstition and ignorance, when really it is an absolute privilege to share time with. Adders like most species keep themselves to themselves and their paths seldom cross with those of humans. Noisy footfall and dogs do not interest adders in the slightest, the first sense of danger and the characteristic zig-zag slides away into a crevice not to be seen until danger has passed. Hardly worthy of the hysteria some people appear to get when they see one.

Adders are perfectly adapted to slithering under objects and into gaps and cracks, leading to the old English term creeping thing.  

One of the first questions which is often asked is why such a strange and seemingly un-associated name. The name adder is actually derived from the "Old English" word Naedre which means creeping thing. This eventually evolved into Nadder and again presumably for simplicity into Adder.

Adders are small snakes, despite photographs often making them look large, males seldom reach 60cm in length, with females being slightly longer. Proportionately females are more chunky, with shorter tails (interestingly snakes do have tails), females tend to be more brown in colour, especially along the zig-zag. Males tend to be more of a silvery grey colour with black zig-zags and a slimmer profile with a longer tail. Pre-shed (like the chap in the photos), the scales are old and faded becoming more of a grey/brown colour, eventually the eye will cloud up and the skin will be removed.

Adders spend large amounts of their time basking during early spring. 

Spring is an important time in the annual cycle of adders and much basking takes place, especially by the males. Males emerge upto a month before females and bask and bask and bask. . . . . . the reason behind this is to aid spermatogenesis (sperm production), as we saw with the common lizard. At this time of year male adders are extremely sedentary and tend to stay close to the hibernaculum. Adders are absolute experts at basking and regularly alter their body position to match that of the sun over the course of the day, they also adopt different basking strategies (i.e. coiled uncoiled) to match the temperature and how much they need to warm up. They have an amazing ability to flatten their body, increasing the surface to sun-exposure. Basking adders often do so with their eyes hidden behind a blade of grass or similar, as their eyes are quite vulnerable to the sun, which can make photography frustrating at times.

Adders can flatten their body, much more so than the one in the photo, to absorb sunlight. 

Once males are ready to mate they slough (shed their skin) unveiling a striking silver and black creature. Around this time females emerge from their hibernacula and those which are ready to mate (most females often only mate once every two years) release a pheromone, which trails along the ground as they move. Adders have a fantastic sense of smell, the tongue catches scent particles and runs them along what is known as the Jacobson's organ in the roof of the mouth. Once the female is found then courtship and mating may occur (hopefully to be covered later in the year).

Throughout the winter hibernation through until the spring, until mating has occurred, the male adder will not feed. All of his energy is from fat reserves put on over the autumn and summer of the previous year. Snakes unlike mammals are cold blooded and subsequently do not need to feed as much as no food is expended on warming up the body (as much as 90% of food is used in this way in mammals). This is perhaps a more efficient way of living, just with the slight inability to be active in cold conditions. An adult adder will feed on between 5 and 10 prey items per-year. Usual prey is made up of small mammals, particularly field voles, woodmice, lizards, birds and nestlings. Younger adders tend to initially feed on young mammals and amphibians.

The adder has a fierce expression owing to the brow, dark red eye and vertical pupil, however they are much understood and placid creatures. 

Without getting carried away and writing a book (it's so easy with this species), I will try and break it down over the year and see what we find.  Hopefully we will find some females and have a part two.