Wildlife UK Forum - Discuss the UK countryside and wildlife

While walking across a farmers field that was cut today I came across this unfortunate snake, which I think is an adder, that had been run over by the blades.

It made me think that there must be a huge amount of animals that are killed each year everytime a field is harvested.

I could not tell it was an adder because of the colour. Is it because it has started to decay, because it looks like it has green markings on it to me.

I didn't think it looked like the colour of an adder either, but I assumed it was one because of the markings. It had more of a blue tinge than green although it didn't show up on the photo.

Has it been decapitated? Poor thing, Im sure its not the only animal that has been affected by harvesting, but theres not really a wildlife friendly way of doing it.

Yes unfortunately it has, a real shame because it was a beautiful snake even though I'm not a huge fan of them myself.

It does seem to be an unavoidable consequence of farming, but I wonder if there is any way to scare off the wildlife before a field is cut. I suppose even if there was, to do it before harvesting every field would be impractical.