I just wanted to share with some pics from the last week-end spent in Switzerland together with Bastien and Yannick. With around 38 snakes found, it turned out to be particularly productive, not only for the asp vipers encountered at middle and high elevations, but also for grass snakes. We were lucky enough to add to this list 2 nice smooth snakes, and an old buddy I haven't seen since ages (young Aesculapian snake). Below are some selected pics of that week-end:
Vegetation was already high and dense at moderate elevations (450m asl):
Young individual photographed during a light rain:
Another individual:
Herping at higher elevations resulted in a great number of well-fed N.natrix (benefitting from the many amphibians around), and to diverse populations of V.aspis ("atra"), among which many were almost melanic:
Zamenis longissimus found under a metallic plate:
At another valley, known for gathering an important population of black vipers. Surprisingly, most of the vipers found that day were not black, as can be seen below:
The last picture was taken after an unexpected situation: At the beginning of the afternoon, after a sunny and warm morning, this smooth snake was found basking on the asphalt. We stopped the car 1m before reaching the snake which did not move at all. The only similar experience I have was with H.viridiflavus but this was at the beginning of fall when the temperatures were already quite low:
Cheers,
Guillaume
It's always a pleasure to look again at this kind of week-ends. It was for sure a very successful one 
). It's great how sometimes everything pans out like you want it to.