LOCAL OBSERVATIONS 2006 - June

Tuesday 27th June 2006

Today was a rather hot humid day, I took a bicycle again, and before long spotted the first herps, the first one was a Malpolon monspessulanus, however, it was already half into it's hideout and so as soon as he detected my feet it was off too fast and I was left with only a small glimpse, just enough to identify it. Walking further away from water and into the vine yards, I heard a lizard but it was too fast and I can only guess that it was a baby Timon lepidus or Lacerta bilineata, I think more Timon lepidus due to the habitat. I ended up coming across another water way and I scanned the surroundings and found two Natrix maura, so common here I don't bother them anymore for photos, and a 'teenager' Natrix natrix. You can distinguish 3 clear age groups with the Natrix natrix in my area (ssp. astreptophora) more then any other snake, the juveniles are very vivid and heavily marked along the body as well as a strong collar, older animals who I call teenagers for obvious reasons and quite longer (over 40 cm) and are elegantly slim, the collar is a lot less strong yet the yellow is still well defined, the patterns along the flanks are less vivid but present. Older specimens are very long and large, they are sometimes extremely robust, they have most of the time entirely lost their collar, yellow and black (black stays on longer, this is a characteristic of ssp. astreptophora), their body patterns have mostly disappeared.

Monday 26th June 2006

Today was a very hot day with temperatures reaching up to 31 C around midi day. I waited until the temperature dropped a bit before trying my luck for herps. I left on a bicycle and went to a garden area which in contrast to the natural fields was still green thanks to the large amount of water. On arrival I overturned many objects such as wood and tin before going into some gardens and snooping around, seeing a few Podarcis hispanica and just afterwards walking in the unusually green grass for this time of year I spotted a snake like movements in front of my legs and at first due to the green and wet conditions of the garden I thought it might have been a Natrix natrix, as the snake slithered at speed from the green grass across the open path, I turned out to be a 110 cm long Malpolon monspessulanus, I lunged onto the snake with gloves (the first time I have ever used gloves in the field) and it was great to catch the fast snake and not feel pain of stinging plants in my hands.

I went then for a walk around the gardens and walls for more, only maybe the heat was a bit too much away from the water rich gardens. Approaching a water system put in place for the horse fields, I walked along it and succeeded in finding a Natrix natrix at a nice size, you usually find them either very short and slender, being quite fragile and agile, or long and overweight and much too robust to look elegant, but at around 50 cm long, the grass snake looks really nice and elegant, this is my preferred size for these animals and you don't get to see that many.

This specimen was taking in some sun on the side of this water way:

Wednesday 7th June 2006

Today Konrad and I scanned the not so visited areas near Paziols, finding Timon lepidus, Psammodromus algirus and other lizards, we then headed to the more humid areas such as the small forest like areas next to the rivers and gardens finding 4 Lacerta bilineata of which one was a juvenile with the characteristic brown colouring.

Following the canal system at the edge of the Mediterranean - continental bio tope we disturbed and caught an adult Malpolon monspessulanus:

 

Tuesday 6th June 2006

A nice blue skied day, got up early and met up with Konrad Mebert and we headed out to look at the early baskers, just outside the village he spotted an adult Timon lepidus jump down from a wall into some reeds, with the snake stick we overturned these reeds to reveal the specimen and catch it for some photographs, he was a nice big male with great blue spots:

Driving a few hundred meters more and another adult Timon lepidus ran in front of the car, but this one got to his den in a wall before we could get out of the car. further on we arrived at the big water reserves, there were Hyla meridionalis, Pelophylax singing, and many many Natrix maura were seen basking, hiding, swimming, hunting, shedding... And so were Natrix natrix but a lot less common, we caught 6 juveniles and one big 112 cm long adult specimen who had caught a frog at the time. I found the longest and largest Natrix maura I have ever seen at 77 cm long! She was a nice orange form too:

And we even discovered a new species origin of a hybrid of the two natrix species, Konrad and I have named it Natrix matrix: