Black Forest, May 2011

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Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Mario Schweiger » Mon May 30, 2011 9:48 am

Last saturday, between my Powerpoint-presentations at DGHT Ulm and DGHT Stuttgart, we (M. Wirth, R. Hähnlein, A. Pieh, A. Schmid, H.-P. Mattern and I) visited a Vipera berus population in the northern Black forest.
Unfortunately the weather was nearly bad - cold wind and complete cloudy nearly all the time. :(
Weather conditions got better when we had to leave :evil:

Some habitat shots:
DSC_6346.jpg


DSC_6349.jpg


DSC_6362.jpg


But anyway, we have been able to spot a few adders.
It was quite hard to spot them, they were resting in wind proof depressions, mostly hided below dry gras, fern leafs or under Vaccinium bushes.

DSC_6360.jpg
subadult "milky" black male in situ


DSC_6391.jpg
.... and posing
DSC_6405.jpg
a very nice female with red chin and throat


portrait1.jpg
portrait


portrait2.jpg
and frontal view


on a log I saw some kind of bee/wasp, catched another insect

insekt.jpg


"highlight" of the day was a fresh shed silverbrown male.
Its astonishing how the color and markings camouflage with the dry fern leafs

DSC_6459.jpg


An interesting observation was something, I very often see, when grabbing Pseudopus apodus, but first time in my life at vipers / adders.
Erecting of both hemipenes

hemipenis.jpg
Vipera berus hemipenes


DSC_6450.jpg
the same male


Due to the weather conditions (I hate to go herping with pullover and anorak :twisted: ) it was a fine day with a total of 10 adders and 4 Zootocas seen ;)

Mario
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Gabriel Martínez » Mon May 30, 2011 10:05 am

Mario Schweiger wrote:Unfortunately the weather was nearly bad
Mario Schweiger wrote:a total of 10 adders


What is this? If you find a good day, how many adders would you find? :lol: Berus is incredible!
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Mon May 30, 2011 11:18 am

Great shots!!!

On the second trip a big black Vipera aspis male showed me his penis also. I don`t ask for that but he have done it.
But made no pics.
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Rok Grzelj » Mon May 30, 2011 11:36 am

10 adders...good score!
I like the "smoked" one.
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Mario Schweiger » Mon May 30, 2011 11:44 am

Gabriel Martínez wrote:
Mario Schweiger wrote:Unfortunately the weather was nearly bad
Mario Schweiger wrote:a total of 10 adders


What is this? If you find a good day, how many adders would you find? :lol: Berus is incredible!


Before two years, also in the middle of May, also in 4 - 6 hours, more than 30!

Mario
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Daniel Bohle » Mon May 30, 2011 12:17 pm

Mario Schweiger wrote:Before two years, also in the middle of May, also in 4 - 6 hours, more than 30!


but now we have end of may 2011 and not middle of may 2009 ;-)

most probably in 2009 you visited that area around mating time and this time a few weeks later.

just for example weather for stuttgart (found nothing better)
2009 hours of sunshine in march/april: 280
2011 hours of sunshine in march/april: 464

for example here my best results:
time bevor mating: 41
time after mating: 13
based on around 75 day from 2006-2010

but keep in mind, this is from a low land population!
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Andre Schmid » Mon May 30, 2011 1:42 pm

I think also we were very succesfull....I was two weeks ago in a other habitat and found (with big luck) after 3 hours 1 male....

By the way, it was a very nice day and a really interesting presentation :)
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Guillaume Gomard » Mon May 30, 2011 2:32 pm

The male in fern leafs is absolutely gorgeous :!: , thanks for sharing. I definitely have to look for berus there in a near futur...
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Vlad Cioflec » Mon May 30, 2011 4:46 pm

This is a superb photo Mario, i just can`t take my eyes of it! :o
Image
Congratulations. :D
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Re: Black Forest, May 2011

Postby Francesco Tri » Mon May 30, 2011 8:24 pm

Thanks Mario,

the male through the eyes of milk is a masterpiece!
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