A snake, a winged jewel, and a visitor from abroad…

One of the great things about being out and about in the countryside is that you never quite know what animals you are going to come across. Here are three of the creatures I’ve seen in the last week or so – a dragonfly at Bodnant Gardens, an adder up the lane at Geronwy’s farm, and a little egret (the white bird with the long legs that looks a bit like a mini-stork) on the estuary at Caernarfon yesterday. It really is worthwhile carrying a camera around with you but even then you don’t get everything; last Wednesday I saw a green woodpecker for a second or two, and a brown lizard scurried under a log in the garden this morning. I also saw a curlew, a plover, and a pair of lapwings at the estuary, but they were too far away to get any decent photographs. Last night I caught a glimpse of two tiny bats from next door’s loft, probably pipistrels, but it was far too dark to get a picture. And our far-to-fast-growing buddleia has been covered in butterflies – admirals, tortoiseshells, whites, painted ladies, one tattered peacock caught in a spider’s web.

I’ve passed a variety of road-kill – a badger, a fox, several squirrels, half a dozen rabbits, a stoat… and that adder in the montage above – yes, I found him dead by the side of the road, not too mangled, so I picked him up with a stick and arranged him in a semblance of life in the hedge. You didn’t really think I’d get that close to a venomous snake did you? Do I look stupid? No, on second thoughts, don’t answer that.