POTD 28Jan11, originally uploaded by andyskelton-a Blog a day http://andrewskelton.net.
… well sort of; I haven’t picked a camera up in over two days, having been knocked out by some sort of bug (and no it wasn’t a praying mantis type of bug) so the photos uploaded today were another old batch.
All the images were taken on the Isle of Wight, at Ventnor’s Botanic Gardens back in 2008. With some hit and miss weather throughout the holiday, we were lucky that the clouds parted during our walk through the town’s public gardens.
Hidden away, Ventnor is the Isle of Wights’ most southerly resort; often referred to as England’s answer to the Riviera due to it’s protection from the northerly winds by the Down’s, the botanic gardens are able to grow many plants that would not survive on the main land.
This is no better exemplified than by one of the most notable residents in the garden, Sand Lizards, which can be seen basking on the walls and paving surfaces soaking up every ounce of heat from the sun.
England is not known for it’s reptiles, the temperate climate lacking the type of year round heat that cold blooded creatures need to help keep active. The Common Lizard is distributed throughout England, in fact I have seen one in our garden before, as well as a number of Slow Worms, which are really legless lizards. Top of my list to try and photograph this year, however, is England’s only venomous snake, the Adder. A member of the viper family, the Adder, as I’ve mentioned before is an incredibly striking creature (let’s hope not litterally) with demonic red eyes. I’ve been told where a number of these snakes bask and hope to try and get a good photograph of them. Normally I’d be using a macro lens but I think, as I’m no Steve Backshall, I’ll be using the 600mm from far away. No Dougal, these snakes photos are small, the real snakes are far away…
Andrew Skelton: 
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