Northern Bulgaria

[Vlad Cioflec]

I spent this weekend fieldherping in Rusenski Lom Nature Park, close to the town of Rousse. It`s a big and very beautiful place and next time i`m sure gonna need more than a couple of days to see all the cool stuff it has to offer.

This weekend wasn`t designed to be a herp trip, but more of a family cultural vacation, with birdwatching, sightseeing and such...
So i did not have any herping equipment at all, and wouldn`t you know it, the herps were out in great numbers.

I saw some cool things, but could not photograph all of them...

There were lots of lacertids running around, mostly Green Lizards and Wall Lizards with a few Balkan Wall Lizards here and there.

If` you`re into birding, this is a great place for it. We tagged some neat lifers such as Alpine Swifts, Red-rumped Swallows and Egyptian vultures.

Always happy to stumble upon a Hermann's Tortoise:

I kinda missed our crazy cat and came close to adopting this one home as well:

Ok, now let`s move on to the snakes. On our morning and evening walks around the village we encountered Grass Snakes, Large Whip Snake, Blotched Snake and Nose-horned Vipers. But only had the opportunity to take a pic of the viper...

Here`s the complete list of what was seen:

Epidalea viridis
Pelophylax ridibundus
Testudo hermanni
Lacerta viridis
Podarcis muralis
Podarcis tauricus
Anguis fragilis
Dolichophis caspius
Elaphe sauromates - Lifer
Natrix natrix
Vipera ammodytes

Moral of the story: Always stash some fieldherping tools in the backpack.

Happy herping!

[Ilian Velikov]

Haha,congratulations for the trip Vlad! So,you saw that E.sauromaets you "didn't dare to dream of"! Pitty you couldn't photograph it! Was it big?

[Vlad Cioflec]

Oh man, the sauromates was *@#$%& huge !!! A real monster. I`ve seen some big snakes in my life but this one really takes the cake!
It disappeared into some dense and nasty stinging nettle, and as i was browsing around cursing the evil poisonous plants i saw it retreating into a hole at the base of a tree.

As you can imagine, i almost cried.

E.sauromates - 1, Vlad - 0.
For now...

[Ilian Velikov]

Yeah, it's painful when you see an animal you wanted to see for a long time, slipping away before you even know what's happening! But..well that's herping! Otherwise it woul'd be boring!..Wish you more luck next time, neighbour! I'm sure you'll meet the beast again! Take care!

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Nice shots!!! The pic of the relaxing green lizards is cool!!