Snake I.D

[mini me]

Once again I'm calling on the PH collective hive mind for some assistance. Clearing up the patio we found this , clearly dead but still fresh snake. It was under a log and I could use an identification. I was thinking grass snake but my bro's completely uneducated opinion has now got me worrying about adders.

Any ideas?

[mini me]

Cheers all. That's what I thought and hoped for. No idea how it met its end. Was clearly quite fresh still. Dunno if the missus did it in whilst lifting the log it was under. Possibly? She did let out quite a scream! When I took it down to the bottom of the garden to dispose of I'm 100% sure I saw another disappear off into the undergrowth. Too quick to see but size/ colour seemed similar so I would assume the same. Was clearly just catching some rays until it saw me coming.

[mini me]

The Moose said:

Doesn't an adder have a diamond based pattern?

That was my understanding. But faced with this one and my imagination I could pretty much say the markings were gonna be diamond shaped once it grew up a bit.

[mini me]

Hmm yeah I guess so. Looking closer at the pic it appears to have some thing on its body. Probably the beginnings of maggots? So presumably had died a little while before we found it. Shame cos it looked in good nick and no visible sign of damage really. We do have cats but I'm pretty sure it wasn't them. Would have probably been left on the doormat or in my shoe if it was!

[mini me]

Yep in the UK. I think it looks much bigger in the pic than it was in real life. Probably around a foot long tops. And ~ 1cm diameter.

[mini me]

All that jazz said:

Where in UK?

Essex way. quite a wild part of Essex mind.