Hello Tarkey, Slow worms are just legless lizards and don't usually have any pattern on their skin's I have seen one about eighteen inches long and lots of people mistake them for the Grass Snake which is very common in Suffolk and in fact the further south you go in England the more you see, Grass Snakes love the warmth and often bask in a patch of sunlight on most heath's. A lot of people say they have never seen one but if you go walking slowly in the countryside you tend to see lots more than if you go blundering along through bushes etc. The Grass Snake and the Adder will feel you walking long before you get to them and will usually be gone by the time you get to where they were. My Son caught one at Levington Marina last year and brought it home for me to identify. They can grow up to three feet long and are easy to identify as they have two yellow patches right behind the head one on each side, sometimes this looks like a yellow ring behind the head, they are harmless so don't harm them. I wonder you don't see them around that old Control Tower where you spend so much time, that is ideal ground for Grass Snakes, if by chance on a warm sunny day you come across an old bit of board or tin laying in the sun lift it up and you might be lucky, you might even see a Slow worm.
-- Edited by Admiral Wormbones at 17:06, 2008-05-16
In the woods off Portal Avenue Martlesham there are glow worms as they take the local kiddies from school there looking for them.
Re Snakes, I was on Westleton Heath Reserve on Wednesday looking for Adders among the heather, nothing. Re Slow worms, we saw one on a bund at Trimley last year and also a snake at Kesgrave and Felixstowe Ferry, as AW says a nice sunny position will bring them out
The Adder of course can be identified by the zig zag markings on its back
John On one of our ghost nights at the Tower we could see from the balcony loads of lights in the gorse. The ghost team went to investigate and they were glow worms
I caught a glow worm one night and kept it till the next day so as I could protograph it, I'll see if I can dig out the photo. I think you will be disappointed though as it's nothing much.