I enjoy nature, photography and cycling and try to combine the three as often as possible. I live in an area that is known for the Vipera Ammodytes Montadoni population, one of the very few in the country, and lately it had become my goal to find and photograph one, even though I`m not that into snakes or reptiles in general. I had been taking trips to Hagieni forest (home of the montadoni) for the last three or four weekends, with no luck. The forest is also home for the zamenis longissimus and dolichopis caspius, natrix natrix, lacerta viridis and some other lizards, some frogs, lots of birds including prey birds like milvus migrans and so on. My main objective was to spot a viper, but I would have also enjoyed seeing the aesculapian snake or the mad snake, as the caspius is known around here. Anyway, I had been roaming through the forest, mostly alone, sometimes wearing sandals (yes, I know), and mostly on the rocky grounds, where the books say the viper likes to hang out. No luck in the midday sun, no luck in the evening so I thought morning will be the right time. I called a friend who also likes to cycle and to observe wild creatures, not necessarily reptiles, and he agreed to join me in one more expedition. He was the more experienced one, having seen a natrix once. We decided to go by car to be able to wander away from it; taking the bikes would have meant carrying them around. Wearing my boots this time, I picked him up at 8 am, some half an hour later we were in the forest and immediately started to search. We went to the usual rocky parts of the area, nothing of course. We decided to go inside the real forest, through the dense vegetation, hoping to have better luck. We walked on an old road for a mile or so, relatively dense forest on the sides but we took a few steps to the right or left from time to time, keeping close to the road at the same time. Nothing, or at least no snakes.
Finally, we reached the top of a hill and something jumped off a small (1,5 meter tall) tree next to me and hid in the grass. My heart stopped, I first thought it was the aesculapian, but it couldn`t have been THAT fast, I didn`t even see what it was. I suspected a lizard, but had never seen one above the ground.
After some more walking we saw this:
It was a good sign, that meant snakes could be in the area too. We continued on the road and a few minutes after my friend took the usual few steps into the vegetation and then I heard him calling me and saying that he saw a snake tail, gray coloured, perhaps a natrix. And then no, he said, it `s a viper! WhooHoo! We were on all fours, pushing the thick bushes away, not caring about them scratching us, there it was, the elusive viper!
We immediately recognised the irregular dark markings on the back. I tried to grab it with the snake stick and failed, but I was afraid not to harm it so I didn`t try again and after a few photos we backed off, still on all fours. Actually we lost it, didn`t look at it for two or three seconds and it was gone.
As a side note, at one point it started climbing a small bush and surprised us, we knew the species was not arboreal. Also, somebody told my friend that was driving through the same forest, on a road with lots of trees on the sides, and at one point a snake that fitted the description of an ammodytes fell from the sky onto the car. The source is said to be reliable, I don`t know whether to believe the story or not, perhaps somebody can share some info on that.
Anyway, we continued our expedition a few more hours, seeing the testudo graeca ibera, quite a few of them, some butterflies, a dead frog and lots of lizards, including this one. Is it a lacerta viridis? This great coloured guy that climbed in a small tree while running away from us also solved the mistery about the creature that had scared me earlier.
At 2pm we decided to call it a day, a great day in fact, We had the seen IT. On the way back to the car, I heard something in the bushes and told my friend to shut up and listen. Pointing in the direction of the sound, I saw the bush shaking and heard rhythmic sounds. It was like a person was trying to cut the small bush from the base and was kicking it with an axe or something, but we couldn`t see past the vegetation. My friend, who is single and without obligations, therefore having a weaker self preservation instinct as opposed to me, husband and father, bravely approached the bushes and started to laugh: there were two testudo graeca fighting with each other, or doing something similar. We continued and the stumbled upon this scene :
I see that for some reason the video link is not working. Here`s a link to a flikr upload of the same video:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ispriluc/9762264262/
Very funny little guys, but shouldn`t they be doing that in spring?
Thank you for reading, I could use some feedback.
I hope the weather will allow me and my friend to return to the forest for some more adventures.
All the best,
Stefan.
They are mad, indeed!
