British lizard

only seen 1 lizard so far this year, the place I usually see them has been set alight a few times by idiots this summer, burning large areas of the grass and shrubs. Lots of burnt snail shells, I expect a lot of the lizards and slowies have been killed too. Plenty of grasshoppers in the unburnt parts, and a bumper butterfly year. I'll keep on looking for the lizards though

WOW its gud 2 c tht many uk members in 1 thread!! wot the chances of me seeing eny slow worms or lizards here in the north east of england (u know, nxt 2 newcastle n sunderland)When i was out on a school trip(at kielder) me nd me m8s found a lizard in the middle of the road(we rescued it) but it was quite little so i thought it was a newt at first, not much of a find really

would an abandoned railway be a good place to find them, or an old farmers field maybe?

I have a young Glass Lizard. I wonder how he compares to Slow Worms. He is underground almost all the time. We see him out hunting a couple times a month. But crickets disappear rapidly! I am reluctant to handle him, because they are very fragile, and I don't want his tail to break. He is very flighty. I had to dig him up a couple days ago to check on him, because there seemed to be an awful smell coming from his tank, but actually it was rotting potatoes in the cupboard underneath him.

I have lots of slugs in my yard. My Eastern Box Turtle loves them- he'll eat 20-30 in one sitting! I put a pile of slugs in a big Tupperware lid, and then put the turtle in with them. You can _hear_ him chomping them down.

Glass Lizards, here in Florida, are pretty common road kill in treed areas with long grass. I've never seen one out and about- we got ours by accidentally digging him up with a bulldozer, in the winter. I'd never seen one before, so we kept him for a while. Every time I think about releasing him, I either see a bunch of them road-killed, or he comes out much more frequently and seems more pet-like.

You Brits aren't too inventive with herp names, are you? Slow Worm, Common Lizard, Smooth Snake... :-)

Nanci

u might say that about us brits, but who invented the 'chippy'?

Haha, don't you mean fry, as the humble chip seems to be called more and more. Soon we'll only be able to get long, thin, tasteless fries.

Oh and another thing. We don't have to be too inventive as there aren't that many to name. There's only 5-6 lizards/snakes I think. You can't exactly run out of names with that few can you?

I thought he meant the other kind of Chippy! Hey, if he wants to take credit-

I never realized UK had so few herps. I wonder why.

I think I am going to rename my species in British fashion.

Orange Snake. Spotted Snake. Speckled Turtle. Grey Tortoises. Checked Birds. Smooth Lizard.

Originally Posted by connord94

would an abandoned railway be a good place to find them, or an old farmers field maybe?

Both places would be great area's to look, esp. the railway. The rails are used by snakes, lizards to bask on and the old rail ties are good nesting sites, especially if they starting to rot out.

but because of the location where i live, i dont think i will ever see 1 down here, and i go over ther often and have NEVER seen anything reptile-like, where would be the best place to look, under rocks maybe? also would it be safe to handle one if im careful?