Be careful when tidying your garden. You never know who you might disturb!

I thought the Magpies had decimated the colony of Slow-Worms in my garden, having several times seen the birds swoop down, grab one, and proceed to drown them in a neighbour’s guttering before eating them.

This afternoon, I was moving my garden waste bin whilst doing a little tidying up, and 3 of these little beauties wriggled out. 2 of them disappeared rather quickly, whilst this particular idiot managed to tangle themself up in a knot of long grass. I moved them to the rockery, depositing them close to where there are multiple little damp, dark and sheltered hidey-holes.

From Wikipedia for those curious :

“The common slow-worm (Anguis fragilis) is a species of legless lizard native to western Eurasia.

It is also called a deaf adder, blindworm, or regionally, a long-cripple, steelworm, and hazelworm.

The "blind" in blind-worm refers to the lizard's small eyes, similar to a blindsnake (although the slow-worm's eyes are functional).

The common slow worm, i.e. the species Anguis fragilis, is often called simply "slow-worm", though all species of the species complex comprising the genus Anguis are also called "slow-worms".”