Excellent close-up, Dave. Did you actually run across this creature in the wild?

Louis Fry wrote:
> Excellent close-up, Dave. Did you actually run across this creature in the wild?
>
I visited a nature reserve and a friend of a friend spotted it. The area is know for Adders but when I looked for one, I didn't see any. Now I have seen one in the flesh, I should be able to spot one in the future. I is in the wild, not a zoo or closed off area.

Great close-up. Those fellows are fast and escape quickly. That´s the only poisonous snake in Finland too and it has been becoming more and more rare during the last some 30 years. Altough not dangerous to healthy adults I would not like to share my tent or sleeping bag with one. Usually one sees those on roads run over by cars. They avoid people when they can and for a good reason - people here still nurture biblical holy hate towards snakes (whether poisonous or not) due to what happened thousands of years ago somewhere in Western Asia according to a certain old legend.
Keep shooting. Pekka

Pekka Nihtinen wrote:
> Great close-up. Those fellows are fast and escape quickly. That´s the only poisonous snake
> in Finland too and it has been becoming more and more rare during the last some 30 years.
> Altough not dangerous to healthy adults I would not like to share my tent or sleeping bag
> with one. Usually one sees those on roads run over by cars. They avoid people when they can
> and for a good reason - people here still nurture biblical holy hate towards snakes (whether
> poisonous or not) due to what happened thousands of years ago somewhere in Western Asia according
> to a certain old legend.
> Keep shooting. Pekka
>
Thank you Pekka. This one was warming up so was not very fast, although I did keep my distance!