Discovery of a slow worm

We had another work session today. The main job was re-weeding the previously cleared beds to eliminate numerous small seedlings.
 
I decided to mattock out some of the snowberry roots on the raised beds. I hadn’t got very far when I noticed that I had turned up an odd-looking worm. On a closer look I realised that it was a tiny slow worm only a few centimetres long. Fortunately the mattock had just missed it, so it was unharmed. A check on the web suggested that it was very young although it would it be unusually early it if it was born this year. I thought it might be attacked by a robin that was looking for lunch, so I laid a foam plastic kneeler over it. When I came back a while later it had gone, probably into a hole in the soil. It seems likely that there is a nest in the vicinity so I stopped work and we will leave the area until we can get advice on what to do and not do.
 
There were slow worms in front garden some years ago. I thought they had gone and it’s nice to find that they are still around the site.
 
The Council’s tree contractors have given the mulberry a big haircut, so it is not casting so much shade and is not in the house gutters. It grows at a huge rate and is likely to have regained most of its former size by the autumn.

The slow worm

The mulberry tree after its haircut!