Field adventures

vrijdag 24 februari 2012

First amphibians of 2012

In the train heading home, Tim and I take a quick look at the weather predictions for the weak. This evening rain, in a matter of a second we think the same. Salamandra salamandra! No sooner said than done we step into the forest. After a while we find the first amphibians of 2012 for us both! Rana temporaria is on the list! In a culvert we find Ichthyosaura alpestris! We continue our search, but a Salamandra was never found.. A Bufo bufo crosses our path and a happy couple of Ichthyosaura alpestris was also spotted. We leave the forest accompanied by a singing Tawny owl ( Strix aluco). Another dip on the Salamandras..

zaterdag 5 november 2011

Counting the eggs!

Saturday 5 November 2011 we went out for the nationale natuurwerkdag (national nature working day). Our 'work' was to collect grass snake eggs and count them. In total we counted 2800 hatched eggs! In 2010 they found 3200 hatched eggs on this location. After the nationale natuurwerkdag we also 'hit' a great moorland area where we found a very late juvenile Smooth snake! This found made our day complete!

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!