Here's a Smooth Snake from a licensed survey in the new forest a few years back. A young one but plumage the same for adults. Butterfly pattern on head, eye stripe, and pairs of dots down body being the key features.
This particular sighting was fairly significant, as it was one of the first sightings to support a theory of the preferred habitat combination that the Smooth Snake prefers.
Called a smooth snake as the scales are smooth with no keel thru the scale.
My participation in new forest reptile surveys has lapsed over the pandemic, but hopefully I can go searching in the coming weeks.
Snakes in the heather project if anyone is interested
Snakes in the Heather ran from August 2019 to March 2024. The project was designed to monitor and conserve smooth snakes and their habitats across Southern England.
www.arc-trust.org
Edit: they are really rare and elusive, even in the heathland strongholds. I probably see 100 Slow Worms, 100 Common Lizard; 50 Adders; to each Smooth Snake.
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