Nature

Baby grass snakes when they're first hatch are approximately 7-10cm long.  Unlike chicken eggs, grass snake eggs are rubber-like, the snakes have on the top of their nose a little egg tooth which they use to rasp their way through.  Grass snakes being born in July/August  would have been hatched in September. 

This time of the year, the females are getting fat as they prepare to lay eggs.  Adult grass snakes are between 70-120 cm, with the females are larger than the males, and can occasionally reach 200cm in length.

People often mistake grass snakes for adders - they're generally olive green in colour.  The thing that causes confusion is the black marking on the head - they lack the definitive zig zag of an adder.  Adders are generally brown or grey.

Early in the morning you can find them on top of the compost, in the ivy or sometimes on top of the wall at Marks Hall where they bask in the sun, warming up.  Once they're up to temperature, they're very quick and spend the rest of the day patrolling for food.

BBC Essex's Renee Hockley-Byam went along to Marks Hall at Coggeshall where the compost bins are regularly used as a nest site, and Curator Jonathan Jukes knew exactly where to look to find a female enjoying the afternoon sun ...