First fieldherp trip in 2011

Today i had some time over before i needed to be at work, so decided to visit a know good spot for Vipera berus, Natrix natrix and Zootoca vivipara.

I dropped off the girlfriend at her work and began to drive out to the "hotspot" which is located near the city i work in. After about 20 min i was there.
Time of arrival was about 8 in the morning. Weather was fantastic and i could feel the heat of the sun.

This is the habitat, snow and ice was still present. But i had my hopes up.

First fieldherp trip in 2011 Web

After only about 2 minutes of searching i found the first adder. What a success. Finally, spring is here.

First fieldherp trip in 2011 Web

After a photo session with that individual and of course the happy texting on the phone to friends. I continued to search for more adders. It didn't take long to find the second, the third and a fourth adder. Camera and phone was frequently used. With in an hour i had found not one but four healthy adders. I was extremely happy.

First fieldherp trip in 2011 Web

With me on this little herping trip was my soon to be expert snake finder Rolling Eyes

Training will begin this spring. The goal is to teach her to find Coronella austriaca. Well if i/we can make that happen is another story Laughing

Regards
Daniel

Incredible trip. I love the melanistic V. berus, a nice white lip and the rest is black.
Pictures of V. berus near snow always boggles me. Fantastic!

The habitat you found them in, is it more marsh habitat etc.?
The habitat is quite different than you would expect in the Netherlands although I know that the habitat can change when covering some distance.

Thanks for sharing!

Best regards,

Tim

@Tim: The habitat is a coastline to the Baltic Sea or more exact "Kalmarsund" between mainland and "Öland". It's located about 20 km from Kalmar city.

Regards
Daniel

Great success. 4 adders in one hour. Melanistic is really beautifull. Hope to see more trips like this.

Best regards, BKK

@Bostjan: Yes it was very nice to see them out of hibernation. Melanistic is nice but i like the others better. We have a very high % of melanistic adders in the populations around my area. I can't remember the exact % but it is high.

Today the findings was 50/50. 2 melanistic and 2 "multicolored".

Regards
Daniel

Very nice looking habitat there, snakes look grouse but for me you can't go past your dog! Excellent photo's Daniel

Nice. The first V. berus i foun dwhen i started herping was a melanistic one. they are stunning animals. corgrats with the succes Smile

Nice dog , by the way!

@all: Thanks

Regards
Daniel

Hello Daniel,

a very nice-looking place!
Congratulations, an excellent opening of the season.

I´m still waiting for the first reptiles to come out near my house (Lacerta viridis, Podarcis muralis, coronella austriaca, Natrix natrix and occasionally Zamenis longissimus). The toads and Rana-species are out but nothing else yet.

I wish you a year going on like this,

Rainer

@Rainer: Thanks, this place is great for adders and the habitat is nice to rest the eyes on.

I envy you, it would be nice to go out and be able to find longissimus. That snake is one of the first non endemic species i came in contact with.

This saturday me and some friends have planed to visit a marsh with some small ponds on "Öland" and try to find Rana arvalis and if we are lucky also Rana dalmatina. Later in spring it is also possible to find Bufo bufo, Natrix natrix and Anguis fragilis there.

I hope you also get a good herping season.

Regards
Daniel

Congrats! I've finally started racking up some species within the past couple weeks after a much longer and colder winter than I'm used to back home.

Good luck in your 2011 season, and keep the shots comin!

I visited the same place about the same time (around 08.00) today. Weather is very good today to, no wind and a clear sky. Temp in the air is around 10 degrees celsius.
I didn't have my tempgun with me but i suspect that on the ground where the sun hits it's up to and maybe over 20 degrees celsius. It felt very hot at least.

This time i found 3 adders within an hour and all of them where melanistic. Today they where more aware of their surroundings and did crawl away quickly after i had spotted them. So no good photos of them. The 3rd i found i didn't even had a chance to photograph.

But the first two i did manage to photograph. They was found very close together.
Can you see them...
First fieldherp trip in 2011 Web

I also found some more "evidence" that spring has arrived.

First fieldherp trip in 2011 Web

That was all for this time.

Regards
Daniel

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