There being no work today I took the opportunity to go into Warren Glen to carry on with some of my historical research which at the moment involves checking on the ground for signs of features that are shown on old maps. I have recently started to use GIS software to overlay these maps on current satellite imaging which enables me to obtain lattitude and longitude from maps that are not marked and transfer this to GPS for use in the field.

Today my quest was rewarded by finding a feature that I feared had disappeared in a landslip and also to see my first reptile of the year.

A male adder freshly out of hibernation and yet to slough (shed its skin) for the first time this year. Although adders are said to emerge in March it is not unusual to see them in February, particularly males which tend to emerge a few weeks earlier than the females typically when the daytime temperatures rise above 8 degrees C.