WHILE the younger generation are more aware of climate change there are concerns about them growing up less in touch with the natural world.

This certainly cannot be said of 16-year-old Max Martin, from Kirby, who recently gave a presentation at Great Bentley with vivid images, including videos of male adders sparring and courtship with the browner females.

These were taken at Great Holland Pits nature reserve, where he once found up to 20 adders - reckoned by their differing location, size and colour.

Max’s interest in reptiles started young on family caravan holidays near Thetford.

He showed us pictures of himself there as a small boy with snakes.

He early learned the difference between venomous adders and grass snakes whose main defence is to emit an unpleasant smell.

The latter’s yellow eye and collar are obvious distinctions with black round pupils, not the slits of red-eyed adders.

Smaller, bronze legless lizards or slow-worms are sometimes persecuted.

There is no justification in harming any of these reptiles.

Adders can bite if trodden on, but are not actively aggressive.

The best time to see them is in spring sunshine, warming-up beside paths before plant-growth accelerates.

A slow, unthreatening approach allows Max photo opportunities.

He feels a connection with the adder seeming unconcerned by his presence.

Holland Haven is another haunt, chiefly for bird-watching: Notable for breeding avocets and seasonal visitors.

He showed the range of sea, freshwater and land birds there sprinkled with less regular “treats”.

Close-ups of a wryneck, a delicately marked small brown member of woodpecker family obligingly stayed several days.

Similarly a bold red-backed shrike sat on bush tops looking out for prey.

These species used to breed in the UK but now are only occasionally seen on passage.

Max was also thrilled by a young turtle dove; a bird who’s purring a generation ago was a familiar sound, now fast declining as a breeding species.

A video of a barn owl flying on ground behind his home now cleared for development gave its own stark message.

BBC’s WinterWatch recently broadcast his short video of a swallow at Abberton early this January – an ominous climatic indicator?

Max won the Essex Wildlife Trust young photographer 2018 and 2019 award with studies of a little owl and adder.

His passion and concern gives some reassurance that wildlife has a young champion.

l For your diary: Thursday, March 19, at 7.30pm, ‘Industry in the Garden: The Extraordinary World of Solitary Bees’, an illustrated talk by Ted Benton at Great Bentley Village Hall, Plough Road, Great Bentley, organized by Essex Wildlife Trust’s Tendring group.