Some pictures from today's herp

Today it was quite cloudy and windy, but I was hoping that I found and photographed some of Vipera ammodytes on their location and some of them were even ignored the weather. They are still in the old skin, in the next few days they will shed and get the very beautiful new one.
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Some pictures from today's herp Dsc_0210

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beautifull!! hope to find these in the wild also some day!

Every year I love to see, that this guys coming out.
I´m suprised every time, wich low temps are enouth for ,,our´´ Vipers! I think, it always a great moment to go for the first herping day the year, and be succesfull to find them. I´m waiting for my first vipers of the year, but I´m not sure if it will be a aspis or a berus....we will see
Thanks for posting this!

Peter, do the aspis and berus live in the same place where are you searching them?
Hope you find both of them and post some pics Smile

No Albert,
not the same place. I use two differend places for aspis and an other one for the berus. Here in Germany berus has a much bigger distribution than aspis. I know only lowland berus biotopes, but in the part where aspis lives, berus is not far away, but in other altitudes. I´m not sure, but nearly impossible that this two species meet in the wild. But I´m not Mr. ,,know it all´´ Mabye aspis goes much higher than I know there.
But in Slovenia, I think, it will be not impossible, like in Italy. There are spots, where the three species (ammodytes, aspis & berus) lives not far from each other !? Isn´t?
Next weekend, when time and weather will god to me, I will visit an aspis population in the north of France. But I´m not sure I will find the time to drive there, I´m in France for ,,Family Afairs´´

Thanks for the reply Peter,

maybe here are really some spots where these three species live near by here in Slovenia but I can not tell you for sure, because I have not seen so far the aspis in the wild. He is not so widespread here in Slovenia and is located only at the western border with Italy as far as I know and up to now I have not been herping on this end of my country.

Wish you good luck if you find the time to visit your aspis population Wink

Today was a very nice and hot day, so I went with my friends to Vipera ammodytes spots to find some and photograph them. At the beginning we had no success, we found only some lizards and nonvenomous snakes like Natrix tessellata (four of them).
Enough talking... here are some pics...

Podarcis muralis
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Some pictures from today's herp Dsc01216

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Natrix tessellata
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The only trace of Vipera ammodytes was its skin from this year.
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When we almost gave up on this day, we decided to look at another spot, where it was luck on our side.
We were greeted by a huge male of Vipera ammodytes cheers

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In the end we parted from him and wished him a nice rest of the day Very Happy

Thanks for sharing, like to see pics taken of herps in the field. That Vipera ammodytes is a biggie-Cheers

Wauw,
somewone had a great day!
Thanks for sharing Albert.

Albert,
what colors do you encounter in slovenia. Is the grey color dominant?
You said that the male you showed is a big one. What is the everage you see?

Great for sharing with us this Albert, a very nice trip Very Happy

Arjan Breedveld wrote:: what colors do you encounter in slovenia. Is the grey color dominant?
You said that the male you showed is a big one. What is the everage you see?

More or less are males grey to silver with a fully black zig-zag and usually I found a bit smaller than this one.
The females are in various shades of brown but the zig-zag is never fully black but it is a dark brown.

Here is an old picture of a female.
Some pictures from today's herp Slika_11

Some pictures from today's herp Slika_11

thanks for sharing Albert,
what a great female too, she is a stunner!
Nice and fat.

Greetings,
Arjan.

It was a realy nice day Albert!
My first herping experience was better than I could imagine.
I cant wait for another herp and I hope that next time we will find some more beautiful Vipers.

Cheers, Rok

Yes, it was a really nice day Rok and I believe we will find more beautiful Vipers next time.
By the way welcome on Venomland mate and enjoy it here Wink

Excellent work:) Thanks for posting.

Hello everybody!
Today I went to the same spot that we were last time with Albert, but this time I was alone. I was successful, although my "snake teacher" wasn´t with me. Very Happy

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Rok

very nice snakes cool pics too, thanks for sharing regards

A nice reddish one Albert,

for me it looks like you was on an differend spot than the times before. Because this ammodytes looks not similar to the last one. For me this last one looks like it is from a more southern located spot than the one before, wich looks like more closer to the Carithian border. Please don´t post location datas here, it´s only a sugestion from me!

This week I start to a short herp trip too. I hope for good weather and some snakes too.
Maby I found the time for a short stop in Slovenia, where I have to found my first ammodytes.
All the years when I was there, on good spots, I have had bad weather (rain, rain,....)
This year it looks better ;-)

Coronella austriaca
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A very nice C. austriaca!
Here around on spots I know all C. austriaca has not this colored belly, they has brown or gray bellys, but long time ago, I found one on the ,,Villacher Alpe´´ that has look identical to yours! Not very far away...

As far as i know all neonates/juveniles of Coronella auistriaca have this reddish belly.

More remarkable seems to me the unusually shaped head markings on Albert's picture.

Yes, I´ve heare that, but the one that I´ve found on the ,,Villacher Alpe´´ wasn´t a juv. with a length of around 40 cm I will say - semiadult.
Mabye that color fades within a lenght of more than 50 cm?
In Germany I have never found semiadults or adult with this kind of coloration.
Mabye I have to found some juveniles there. But the are so smal and hard to find. Not bigger than a worm.

Must have been a male in my opinion, Peter.
Normally the orange/red colouration of the belly is gone at this size of 40 cm, but some males can have reddish bellies as adults or can be entirely reddish. I found a subadult red male (really more red than brown) living wild in my garden recently.
regards
Peter

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