A Grass Snake in the Water

Grass  Snake

On what was not the most promising day in terms of the weather (and yes, we nearly got soaked), we had a remarkable time in terms of the wildlife we were able to see at Carlton Marshes, one of the larger reserves in the care of Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

There were damselflies, dragonflies (just a few), butterflies and calling cuckoos - but it was the rare Fen Raft Spider who stole the show for us, followed by the sudden and unexpected appearance of this Grass Snake. We hardly ever see these reptiles, and to cap it all, David saw a second Grass Snake at Minsmere the following day.

I have certainly never seen a snake swimming in the water before. This one carried on swimming, with its head held high before disappearing a few seconds later - and that was the last we saw of it.

I have included this photo because it shows the beautiful setting of the reserve. Plans are afoot, as I mentioned in my last post, to extend this area of Suffolk Broadland and to improve visitor facilities.

The landscape is flat, broken up with dykes, ditches and watercourses of various kinds. The Netherlands are not far away to the east (though there are roughly 120 km of sea water between the two shores).

This was the view that we saw first, and just as the Fen Raft Spider had been almost like another piece of waterlogged reed, so the Grass Snake could have been another strand of water weed or piece of twig.

Those distinctive yellow and black collar marks stood out sufficiently, however, particularly when the snake was moving on the surface, making its way down the watercourse.

The image above shows just how well camouflaged these snakes can be. As you may have realised, the quick pictures we took have been cropped and enlarged for the sake of detail.

We felt very privileged to have the unexpected chance to watch this snake for a few seconds as it carried on swimming.

Grass Snakes are protected by law under the terms of the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. They must not be killed, harmed, injured, sold or traded.

Heard but not Seen - at EWT Fingringhoe Wick and SWT Redgrave and Lopham Fen

I am, I confess, a very visual person. My art tutor taught me to 'see' - to love art - in terms of colour and shape. I have a passion for vibrant colour.

It is a source of sadness to me, however, that (sense of rhythm apart) I am not more musical. Music and mathematics often go hand in hand, and I am absolutely dreadful at mathematics!

I enjoy singing, largely by ear, and I listen to a variety of musical styles for pleasure. However, when it comes to birdsong, I have great difficulty in distinguishing one bird's call from another, with the exception of a few distinctive species such as the Robin, Blackbird, Pheasant, Curlew, Bittern etc.

I am doing my best - little by little - to rectify this situation. Naturally there are bird songs that are practically impossible to miss, and we have been privileged on recent nature reserve visits to enjoy two of these from the iconic songsters of British springtime, the Cuckoo and the Nightingale.

The Cuckoo

I once heard the Cuckoo from my study here in our Suffolk home. I particularly crave Cuckoo song when I am in Scotland and the two note call reverberates like a pebble across the unbroken surface of a loch or a sound. Last year we heard Cuckoo song in an Essex bluebell wood. Only yesterday we experienced it ringing out, woodwind style, across the wide expanses of Redgrave and Lopham Fen, home of the rare Fen-Raft Spider. We thought we saw two Cuckoos as they darted around the fen, but the Cuckoo is generally a bird for the ear rather than for the eye, and it is only the male of the species who utters the distinctive song.

Reed Bunting at Redgrave and Lopham Fen, Suffolk Wildlife Trust

A Fen Raft Spider pool at Redgrave and Lopham Fen

The Nightingale

We visited Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve, in the care of Essex Wildlife Trust, some weeks ago. The site is surrounded by superb estuarine views. There are trees, shrubs and gorse for cover. We were told that the Nightingales were singing. We were asked whether we had heard their song before, to which we answered that we were not aware of having done so. The warden tried to describe the song, but said he was sure we could not fail to hear it. He was right! We had hardly reached the first viewpoint when the air filled with the exquisite notes of the bird in question. I think there is little doubt that we shall know it at once on our next encounter.

The entrance to the reserve at Fingringhoe, Essex Wildlife Trust

Did we see the Adders or the the other star species? Well, no - but we came away with the sound of nightingale music in our ears. 

Norfolk Festival of Nature - From Acorns to Fen Raft Spiders

I have just returned from two stimulating days at the Norfolk Festival of Nature.

We arrived at The Auden Theatre at Gresham's on Friday evening in time for an excellent talk on the rare (IUCN Red Listed) Fen Raft Spider, which is the subject of my ZSL poem.

Fen Raft Spider Trail sign at Redgrave and Lopham Fen

The speakers were Dr Helen Smith, a plant ecologist and spare-time conservationist, and Sheila Tilmouth, Artist in Residence to the Fen Raft Spider, a position that was initially funded by Arts Council England. Dr Helen Smith has headed Natural England’s conservation programme for the Fen Raft species and has carried out successful work by establishing new populations in Broadland. She is currently president of the British Arachnological Society. Helen and Sheila gave a first-rate presentation on this large spider's life cycle, sharing aspects of its struggle for survival on SWT Redgrave and Lopham Fen. You can read about their book, On the Margins: the Fen Raft Spiders of Redgrave and Lopham Fen, here and here. It comes highly recommended.   

SWT information board at Redgrave and Lopham Fen

Then on Saturday afternoon I attended a Writing Workshop in the Woods, led by Gresham's English Master, Dr Jonathan Ward. This proved a fascinating experience as we encountered rain, graffiti, smoke, an open-air theatre, strong gusts of wind and a press photographer from the local paper as we made our 'way through the woods'.

We were given stimulating writing assignments and I much look forward to honing my scribbles. What a privilege to read an early woodland poem by Auden in the grounds of his old school! The workshop reading list included Harriet Tarlo's challenging anthology of radical landscape poetry, The Ground Aslant, which accompanied me on our trip.

Capturing detail: a scrap of bark, subject of my draft poem

We attended the Festival Launch with Mark Cocker, whose work I have long admired. Mark's Crow Country has to be one of my top books on the natural world on account of his precise and compelling descriptions of corvids gathering in the Yare Valley, prior to their evening roost. I am currently reading Claxton: Field Notes from a Small Planet, which is an equally stimulating read, packed with exquisite observations about a part of the world (home of my teenage years) that is close to my heart.

There were rumours that Margaret Atwood and her partner, Graeme Gibson, were going to appear on the podium to address the audience, and these proved to be true. Margaret and the panel discussed the emotive subject of losing nature words from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. The thought that the word 'acorn' could be dropped from an English dictionary caused a particularly noticeable ripple. If you are on Twitter take a look at #naturewords.

The Norfolk Festival of Nature is rapidly gaining ground. There are vast hopes, dreams and plans afoot for residencies and the like in a bid to bring the wonders - and fragility - of the natural world before the county. Dr Al Cormack is Director of the Festival of Nature and Head of English at Gresham’s. He is the author of Yeats and Joyce and several articles on contemporary literature. Before coming to Gresham’s he taught the literary modules on the MA Creative Writing at UEA.

There was a brief discussion about ways of engaging the public, perhaps particularly with the future of the Festival and the younger generation in mind. I shall watch this space with great interest. Meanwhile, I would like to express sincere thanks to all who have helped to make this year's Festival activities so thought-provoking, enjoyable and worthwhile. 


Festival Themes

• The Festival Programme
• Festival Coverage by the Eastern Daily Press - including a small picture of me perching on the tree stump, during the woodland writing workshop
• 'Rewilding our Language of Landscape', Robert MacFarlane in The Guardian, 27 February 2015
• Not mentioned at the Festival, but you might also like to see 'A Lament for Lost Words' by Malcolm Guite

Fen Raft Spider

• The Fen Raft Spider Website
• Sheila Tilmouth: Fen Raft Spider Residency
• My ZSL winning poem, 'Raft Race' 
• SWT Redgrave and Lopham Fen
• The Fen Raft Spider on BBC Countryfile