I had the feeling of a good snake day. The weather was humid with hazy sunshine through thin cloud. I took myself off to high up on the Greensand Ridge, not far from Westerham, to look for adders in an area where KRAG has laid refuges at several sites. I had been lucky there in the past, and arrived with anticipation. The first site produced two males lying out to soak up the morning sun, at the second site I spooked a male amongst the fallen leaves of last autumn and this year’s bluebells and at a third site a large Grass Snake didn’t take kindly to my interruption, and slithered off under the adjacent brash. Things were looking encouraging.

At the next site, I had seen a male adder on my last visit but there was no sign this time. I stood enjoying the sunshine and the birdsong. Then, at about 10m from where I was standing there was a sudden rustle of last year’s Sweet Chestnut leaves. Amongst the leaves, bluebells and bramble, I could just make out black and white markings. I carefully closed the gap by half, then stood petrified as two male adders came out of the undergrowth in ‘combat’. I had my camera ready and mounted it on my monopod and started shooting. The pattern of the combat seemed to be wrestle like hell for 3 to 4 minutes, then take a break for about 1 minute, then back to the wrestling. To take the photos I was standing on the footpath and after about 5 minutes a couple with a dog came along and stopped to ask what I was doing. I thought, this is it, the dog will charge in and so end this story. I can’t remember what I said but it probably wasn’t very friendly as the next time I looked out of the corner of my eye they and the dog had gone; but the two males were still wrestling.

I couldn’t have told you how long I stood there, but, looking back at the times on the photos it was about 25 minutes; enough time to get plenty of shots. Then, as suddenly as it had started, it was over; the two males stopped wrestling and settled down in front of me about 2m apart. From the body language, I thought the one nearest me had lost but I was wrong. After a couple of minutes to recover he moved off, heading for a bramble patch about 10m away. I watched him and as he got to the patch, he slowed down, and met up with his prize, a female, well camouflaged in the undergrowth. He moved all over her, gradually getting into the same position that she was in. Before he could manage this, I caught a movement from the corner of my eye, it was the loser, heading straight for the happy couple. He got right up to the pair, and was a couple of inches away, when the winner, using his tail like a whip, delivered a good slap to the head. The loser turned tail and settled almost under my feet to lick his wounds. The winner eventually found the right position, and the fruits of this happy union will hopefully be found in the autumn. Before leaving, I checked the head pattern of the loser, it was the male I saw on my last visit.