I think you'll find its almost certainly a grass snake

They hibernate over winter in tree roots and the like and when they shed their skin they can look lighter in colour and distinctly different. The fact that you saw three together also points to that because they tend to hibernate in groups. I've seen over a dozen together at this time of the year down by the river. The warmer weather brings then out but they take a bit of time to come up to speed hence why they haven't moved too far apart. Their numbers have increased a lot in recent years. If you're lucky you'll see them swimming because they are fantastic in the water hence why the rest of Europe call them the swimming snake and not grass snake. For what it's worth I think they're beautiful but I know some people kill them because of their inherent fear which is such a shame. If I am wrong (and I confess I'm no expert) I'd be interested because I know of only the Adder, Grass, Smooth (which as far as I'm aware is only found in Souther Britain) and the slow worm which is a lizard but gets confused for a snake. It can't be a slowworm because they're much smaller and I've seen many of these but never with any green or yellow.

Posted By: Chopper, Mar 11, 11:38:21