PotM Calendar
The Photo of the Month (see gallery) is a year-round calendar of wildlife and nature images with story contributions from visitors, friends and fellow photographers.
When it comes to nature photography, it's not only those exciting tales of high adventure that often accompany talent and skill for a fabulous result. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a well-timed shot or well-framed one can say as much about you as a photographer. So, if you'd like to showcase one of your pictures here, free, for one calendar month with a short story or personal account, then this page is for you.
Epping Forest, Loughton
Between March and October, anyone in the UK exploring the great outdoors will likely come across our only native snake known to inhabit almost every preserved part of our countryside. With the exceptions of the Highlands, Scilly Isles, and famously, Ireland, grass snakes are found in lowland habitats ranging from parks and gardens to woodlands and wetlands where water plays a significant role for them – 60% of their diet consists of frogs, newts, and fish. However, lizards, insects, small mammals, and chicks are also on their menu, which can drive them to colonise other places whenever aquatic food sources dry up.
Besides being expert swimmers, they’re our largest snake, with females occasionally growing 1.5 metres long! They're also the only UK snake to lay eggs — often in rotting wood, compost, and manure heaps for bio-thermal warmth. As reptiles, heat sources are essential for their reproduction and survival, yet for all their familiarity, they’re elusive and secretive enough for their whereabouts and numbers to remain a mystery. Still, in flower-rich water meadows teaming with tadpoles, full of frogs, else packed with shoals of small fish, you might spot the serpentine movement of an olive-green, beady-eyed eel-like creature slithering between some irises and water reeds, its head above water tasting the air with a flickering forked tongue – or simply chance upon a barred, grey-green snake in the grass, basking in the sun, while out for a casual walk in the woods.
Special announcements or simple hellos. Place your message, or link here as part of your PotM agreement. With three places left for 2024, the PotM Calendar is now closed until September 17th. To learn more about posting news, comments and events under a PotM agreement, see our Terms of Use page, where you can submit your photo (along with your story) during the last two weeks of every month.
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