Field adventures

zaterdag 1 oktober 2011

Field week with school,

On sunday the 25th of September the fieldweek with school in the Drent Friese Wold should start. We had to be present at 18.00 hours, Tim, some other friends and I decided to depart early in the midday and do some herping! Very soon we found the first snakes! After 9 adders (Vipera berus) we found a juvenile adder while he was shedding! This was an amazing moment! While looking an taking some photographs I saw an adult female adder crawling! On the place she started crawling I spotted a fresh juvenile adder! It was still in the egg yolk! After it released it self from the yolk it started shedding! So 1 shedding adder and one who was releasing it self from the yolk and started shedding! During the week I was busy with a project in the shifting sands, no good reptile habitat but in breaks I saw about 5 other adders and several grass snakes (Natrix natrix). I also worked with some trapcams and 'trapped' a squirrel and a pair of roe deers. Enough words, time for pics and a short clip!

zaterdag 24 september 2011

Melanistic adders!

Today Tim and I went out for the search of melanistic adders. We where a bit early, so after a time we found the first adder. A big female, within 10 minutes we found the first melanistic adder, and 5 minutes after that another one! In total we found 10 adders in that area, of that where 4 melanistic. On our way back home we decided to 'hit' another area. There we found all 3 native species of the Netherlands. 2 adders, 4 grassnake and 1 smooth snake where spotted!