Rhodos in August

[Rémon ter Harmsel]

Hi all,

Im going on a 8 day family trip to Rhodos in a few days. Promised weather will be hot (31C+). It won't be a full herp-fest trip, but I'm planning to at least rent a car and do some exploring. Since other islands are within reach from the harbour, I was thinking about the option to visit Symi to look for vipers or Kastellorizo in an attempt to find some salamanders. Since august isn't prime herping anyway, I'm having some doubts though; visiting any of the smaller and sunscorched islands might be a complete waste of time in August. If so I'd rather explore Rhodos some more (or even just enjoy the pool ). Have any of you visited the area at the end of August? Any advice is welcome!

Regards, Rémon

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

visiting any of the smaller and sunscorched islands might be a complete waste of time in August

My thoughts exactly.

[Rémon ter Harmsel]

A few weeks late, but here is a short report. The whole thing can be described as too hot for comfort, with temperatures already over 35C before noon. Herping in the early morning and at night didn't yield anything interesting as well, and during a whole week I managed to see not a single snake, which is also a lifer, but not one I'm proud of

I was staying in Rhodes city, near the old city wall, see below:


Found nothing more than loads of A. oertzeni, H. turcicus and some L. stellio en C. ocellatus. Hegdehogs (E. concolor) were also often present at night.















Most of the rivers were dry or as good as dry, with the remaining P. cerigensis, M. rivulata and the one endemic fish (Ghizani) clustered together. Many Ghizani found dying in the remaining puddles of muddy water









Ghizani




One of the rivers in a bit better shape

Apparently there's also an old villa of Mussolini on Rhodes. Didn't know that, do now.
Not in the best shape ever...

Only a few B. viridis found along a riverbed


L. trilineata


Old ruin, habitat of only a few L. stellio.


Butterfly valley, literally stuffed with Euplagia quadripunctaria, quite the sight!

[Rémon ter Harmsel]

Some pictures seem to be not working (hyperlinked just like the others); can any of the admins see why? Same with some pictures being rotated for some reason...

[Thomas Reich]

Crazy amount of Euplagia!

[Mario Schweiger]

Hello Remon,

http://crs.ophetweb.nu/rhodos/3.jpg is not available, even when entering directly.
Same for …/13.jpg, …./18.jpg
turned pictures:
Your website(album) seems to turn the pictures by itself.
Not possible here in the forum, sorry.

Mario

[Rémon ter Harmsel]

Thanks Mario,
Managed to fix the missing pictures. No idea about the turning.

Rémon

[Mario Schweiger]

No idea about the turning.

Rémon

some web-albums turn the pictures automatically, like some photo-editing programs (irfanview, etc.). They "know" if you turn your camera while taking a picture.
The only solution for showing the pictures here in the correct direction is to turn them manualy or upload them here to fieldherping.eu in the correct view.
Btw, I will check if there is any solution to do this here automatically, too.

[Rémon ter Harmsel]

I uploaded them turned right, and they show correctly as well. If I click the link http://crs.ophetweb.nu/rhodos/2.jpg the picture looks fine.

[miguel santos]

I like the picture of the L. stellio. cool.
Did you see a lot of trilineata or were they not so commun in the summer heat. I was in the area (quite) some years ago and I did not see one single one.
Greetings,
Miguel