Unexpected Weekend
Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2009 11:09 amHello everyone,
This weekend I went to my hometown Pravetz again. We drove to a nearby village because we wanted to do some fishing in the small river there. The weather was really hot..even the fish was resting, so I left the fishing and went for a walk to see what I can find. Of course,first ting you see are those numerous Pelophylax ridibunfus. Froglets had already completed their metamorphosis, so there were all sizes of marsh frogs jumping around in the shallows. There were a lot of small fish,too...no wonder that Natrix tessellata is also common here (didn't see any this time,though).
I went away from the water in the light woods,meadows and shrubs along the river. There I found something that I didn't expect. A adult female Testudo hermanni in the shadow of the bushes feeding on some fallen fruits. I was really happy to see it, because tortoises are very rare in that part of the country! They were common everywhere some years ago but their numbers had declined rapidly (nobody knows how much exactly), so you can understand my excitement of finding that there were some left after all. This female was quite big and her carapace was deformated and full of scars from old wounds. The toroise was a real surviver!
After that we went back to Pravetz but I wasn't feeling like staying home,so I went for a walk again. I went to"my" pond in the woods to check out what's going on. On the way I stopped at a small puddle with a lot of vegetation around and in it. Nothing but P.ridibundus again.
I arrived at the pond and started to check the spots I always check when I'm there. Some years ago there was a wooden board in the dense vegetation on the shore, under which I used to find a number of Anguis fragilis, together with tens of Natrix natrix, every time I picked it up! Than someone from the houses near the pond had been doing some construction work and burrowed the board with soil and stones...I was really disappointed
, so I decided to put another board on the same place, hoping that the animals will come back. Unfortunately the grass snakes never showed again on that spot..but now everytime I pick up that board there's always at least one Anguis fragilis! This time there was one again! It was a pretty big adult gravid female with unusual bluish metal colour! 
After the photo session I put the slow worm back under the board. The next day I went back,picked up the board and it was gone..but there was another gravid female..much smaller and with a normal copper colour!I've found newborns under that board and I think slow worms may give birth there!
That's it for now. Thank you all for looking and happy herping!
Ilian
This weekend I went to my hometown Pravetz again. We drove to a nearby village because we wanted to do some fishing in the small river there. The weather was really hot..even the fish was resting, so I left the fishing and went for a walk to see what I can find. Of course,first ting you see are those numerous Pelophylax ridibunfus. Froglets had already completed their metamorphosis, so there were all sizes of marsh frogs jumping around in the shallows. There were a lot of small fish,too...no wonder that Natrix tessellata is also common here (didn't see any this time,though).
I went away from the water in the light woods,meadows and shrubs along the river. There I found something that I didn't expect. A adult female Testudo hermanni in the shadow of the bushes feeding on some fallen fruits. I was really happy to see it, because tortoises are very rare in that part of the country! They were common everywhere some years ago but their numbers had declined rapidly (nobody knows how much exactly), so you can understand my excitement of finding that there were some left after all. This female was quite big and her carapace was deformated and full of scars from old wounds. The toroise was a real surviver!
After that we went back to Pravetz but I wasn't feeling like staying home,so I went for a walk again. I went to"my" pond in the woods to check out what's going on. On the way I stopped at a small puddle with a lot of vegetation around and in it. Nothing but P.ridibundus again.
I arrived at the pond and started to check the spots I always check when I'm there. Some years ago there was a wooden board in the dense vegetation on the shore, under which I used to find a number of Anguis fragilis, together with tens of Natrix natrix, every time I picked it up! Than someone from the houses near the pond had been doing some construction work and burrowed the board with soil and stones...I was really disappointed
, so I decided to put another board on the same place, hoping that the animals will come back. Unfortunately the grass snakes never showed again on that spot..but now everytime I pick up that board there's always at least one Anguis fragilis! This time there was one again! It was a pretty big adult gravid female with unusual bluish metal colour! After the photo session I put the slow worm back under the board. The next day I went back,picked up the board and it was gone..but there was another gravid female..much smaller and with a normal copper colour!I've found newborns under that board and I think slow worms may give birth there!
That's it for now. Thank you all for looking and happy herping!
Ilian