Cerdagne / Capcir - July 15th/17th 2008

15th July

Me and fellow english herper Matt Wilson took a bus from Perpignan to Font-Romeu, where, waiting for us, was an art teacher from the local Lycée, his name was Patrice Baud, he lives in a small village called Egat only 1 km from Font-Romeu, he was very kind to accommodate us for a couple of days in order to guide us around his region.
Upon arrival we hit the field with a very nice spot grouping stone walls, forest and green prairies, here we saw many Common Wall lizards, a Slow Worm, and 2 Viviparous lizards, I could only get photos of one of the Viviparous lizards.

Poor shot of the Viviparous lizard (Zootoca vivipara) - © Daniel Phillips

Habitat - © Daniel Phillips

But something didn't feel right and it was the heat, it was already mid afternoon and it was too hot, however we didn't give up and we moved to a very popular site for Asp vipers, arriving some hours later, this spot, high in the Pyrenees, only some few hundred metres away from the border of Andorra, it was cooler but still very hot for this area. Despite hours of searching we didn't find a single trace of Asp viper, however we did find many Common frogs, tadpoles, juveniles and adults, we also stumbled across many Common Wall lizards and 2 female Sand lizards, which are from the restricted Pyrenean sub-species garzoni. As we were returning to the car we also found a Smooth snake out and about, which was the first one I had found without lifting stones of any various object. This success was shortly appreciated as I was attacked by a very aggressive bee and stung in the back of my neck.

Common frog (Rana temporaria canigonensis) - © Daniel Phillips

Sand lizard (Lacerta agilis garzoni) - © Daniel Phillips

Posed in this position, Smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) - © Daniel Phillips

Belly view of the Smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) - © Daniel Phillips

16th July

Last night over diner we decided to return to near Andorra, but early in the morning in order to be there at the correct temperature, and so as planned we headed off quite early and only 5 minutes after arriving at the site, our first Asp viper was spotted, a gravid female trying to bask in what was a quite cloudy start to the day. As it started to get alert to our presence, I pounced upon it and therefore seized it for our photographic needs, as we were photographing the specimen we noticed a shed of a different specimen, and from there on end I was half looking for more Asps.
A few minutes later and Patrice tracked another Asp and called me over, it had already disappeared into a stone pile upon my arrival, but through a gap in the stones I could see it's head, I lifted one of the stones out of its place and caught our second Asp viper. It was only an hour later before thinking that the head pattern and colours of the captured specimen did not match the one I saw through the gap of the stones, and so, on our way back, I took another look at the same spot and surely enough, there was another specimen, a more orange coloured one, which turned out to be the most aggressive of them all.
We then searched along various stone walls and I found a very small and extremely vivid Asp viper, our fourth of the day.
Also seen that day were many Common Wall lizards, a shed of a Smooth snake under a stone, and many Common frogs of all life stages.

First Asp viper (Vipera aspis zinnikeri) - © Daniel Phillips

Third Asp viper (Vipera aspis zinnikeri) - © Daniel Phillips

Dear Konrad... - © Daniel Phillips

Fourth Asp viper (Vipera aspis zinnikeri) - © Daniel Phillips

Asp viper habitat - © Daniel Phillips

After our success at the viper front, Matt asked for us to go to a site where we could find Western Whip snakes, and so, we moved to the requested site. We found one specimen of 89 cm long, dead in the street of the village of Angoustrine, the specimen in question had still a rather juvenile pattern despite it's length, and it may have been killed by a bike, of car.
I ran after a fleeing specimen shortly after, seemingly of a slightly larger size then the dead specimen from earlier, but I stood no chance as it was not far from a stone pile and refuge !

89 cm long DOR Western Whip snake (Hierophis viridiflavus) - © Matt Wilson

Having failed to catch and photograph a live specimen of Western Whip snake, we decided to have a scout of the streams for any Fire Salamanders, we ended up finding 2 larva at very late stages, and we got seriously bitten by mosquitoes.

Larva of Fire Salamander (Salamandra salamandra terrestris) - © Matt Wilson

Habitat - © Matt Wilson

17th July

On our last day in the relatively cooler mountains, we headed to a much colder part, called Capcir, and to we searched the areas close to the skiing slopes of Les Angles, as soon as we arrived we were frustrated to see many Sheep grazing on the lower parts of the slopes, and when we got closer it was evident that they had pretty much been everywhere, but we found a shed of an Asp viper, I saw fleeing a juvenile Viviparous lizard, and we also saw many Common frogs of all life stages, and I caught another Asp viper, this specimen was a lot more pale then the others from near Andorra. Matt also found 3 Common toads together, cute !
After the weather got bad and we stopped all searches, and we headed home.

Asp viper (Vipera aspis zinnikeri) - © Daniel Phillips

Portrait - © Daniel Phillips

Same - © Daniel Phillips

3 Common toads (Bufo bufo) found together - © Daniel Phillips

Habitat of the Common frog (Rana temporaria) and Asp viper (Vipera aspis) - © Daniel Phillips

Bad weather at the end of the morning - © Daniel Phillips

Infinite thanks to Patrice Baud and his wife for the hospitality and kindness shown!

Species:

Anguis fragilis - Slow Worm
Bufo bufo - Common toad
Hierophis viridiflavus - Western Whip snake
Lacerta agilis garzoni - Sand lizard
Natrix natrix helvetica - Grass snake (DOR)
Podarcis muralis - Common Wall lizard
Rana temporaria canigonensis - Common frog
Salamandra salamandra terrestris - Fire salamander
Vipera aspis zinnikeri - Asp viper
Zootoca vivipara - Viviparous lizard