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SAW AN ADDER ON THE WEAVER


stablemabel

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Met my first adder on the towpath by the wooden bridges near winsford and i couldnt believe how vivid its colours were...i was transfixed.. a collie had seen him in the hedgerow and had a right old bark up..so he headed right on to the middle of  the towpath ..he went a few metres toward the dog then stopped then headed back a few feet towards me then stopped then set off into the weaver.....brilliant

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17 hours ago, stablemabel said:

Met my first adder on the towpath by the wooden bridges near winsford and i couldnt believe how vivid its colours were...i was transfixed.. a collie had seen him in the hedgerow and had a right old bark up..so he headed right on to the middle of  the towpath ..he went a few metres toward the dog then stopped then headed back a few feet towards me then stopped then set off into the weaver.....brilliant

That takes me back to the only time I knowingly saw one, on a lane somewhere outside Portmadoc when I was working on the Festiniog Railway. I too was enthralled by its vivid colours.

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When we had our allotment a group of us on a working party were doing a walkaround to see what needed doing. One of the ladies remarked "look at that grass snake, isn't it lovely" - I didn't want to tell them it was in fact an adder and probably a female one (the zig zag on the back was brown, - it is around 75% to 90% accurate). Beatiful creatures, I'm jealous of the OP :)

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I was bitten as an 8year old kid in the wilds of Islay, far from the nearest road or telephone and long before anyone had invented mobiles.

We were on a massive beach somewhere, and as kids do, building sandcastles ....this time walling in a small snake. Eventually it got bored of sandcastles and bit me between two fingers. 

After a 5 hour walk out later, and my arm now balloon sized, the doctor said I was lucky, and I seem to remember Epsom salts being part of the remedy.

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A Cautionary Tale

Went for a walk with mrs D on Whixhall Moss a few years ago. Adders don’t like water and normally (we were later told) only populate higher drier parts of the area. But this one had got lost and was in a soggy part. It had warmed up nicely and had found a tussock where it was dry but shaded from the the hot sun.

 We had moored near the car park and were following a route round the Moss from a canal side handout. There had been some heavy rain so despite the warm sun, we had to tread carefully not to get soaked, and were hopping from one dry bit to another.

When she said she’d been bitten, to my shame I first assumed it might have been a wasp sting, but I saw the culprit slither away. We called the ambulance but concluded by saying that she seemed ok. The bite was at first similar to a wasp sting, until we got back to the boat and she sat down, and put her leg up. Then gradually her throat and tongue began to hurt and swell.

A tense period followed, where the ambulance which had fortunately continued towards us across country was unable to find us or get through on the phone. Mrs D, using her training as a speech therapist, was just looking for a pen to use to (a) mark the spot for me on her throat and (b) perform an emergency tracheotomy….. when the ambulance found the car Park. Simultaneously a chopper appeared above but by the time he found a place to land had used too much fuel to take us.

Adrenaline was administered and the ambulance wobbled around the countryside like Noddy for a while till we made it to Shrewsbury General and the NHS performed at its best.

Its unlucky that she had such an anaphylactic shock reaction, having only ever had mild allergies to wasps and shellfish before. But it can happen, and could have been extremely serious. At least now we know to always have an adrenaline epipen to hand. And to wear decent boots!

Made the local papers and BBC radio website!

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