my first post here including pictures (a bit overdue but better late than never
)I spend my vacation with my family in Switzerland. With 4 sisters that are not to keen on herps it was difficult to really spend time on finding some. Still, whenever I had time I grabbed my mountain-bike and started cycling and stopping at some sites that looked good. We first visited Ticino because my sisters wanted a tan
... Hot weather and the days were mostly spended laying on the beach.This resulted in the following pictures! Hope you enjoy!
I found my first reptiles in a old city-center. Not surprising for these wall-crawlers but still surprising to see.
Podarcis muralis maculiventris
And their habitat:
The next day we had rain in the morning and in the afternoon it started to clear with good conditions for snakes. Back on my cycle to a little place I saw a couple days earlier.
Lifting these plates resulted in my first H. viridiflavus! I was thrilled to find this species. Snappy snakes that show a lot of character!
Also found these among the leaf-litter:
Playing with the settings of my camera resulted in this:
Aslo found this little flower. The shape of it's leaves made me think this is an orchid but I have no clue what so ever on the exact species.
Then We left to Berner-Oberland. Nice camping with some fantastic views!
A couple of hiking tours were not very succesfull. the temperatures were very high for reptiles and everything was found flipping things (although I noticed that some people swear by flipping things is the way to find some animals, and I don't disagree
)
A couple of walks in some ideal V. aspis habitat led to nothing. Temperatures were to hot by the time we arrived. When we returned I checked out the surrounding with some surprising finds:
I beieve this is the most beautiful salamander that I've seen so far.
Salamandra atra
Also found N. natrix along a fast flowing river. Pretty strange habitat I thought because the river would be dangerous for me to swim. Still pleased with the find!
Also seen I. alpestris and B. bufo
But the most stunning find during the entire vacation was by far a Edelweiss! Fantastic and iconic little flower.
Hope you enjoyed.
Kind regards,
Tim
) is a fantastic area for herping.. and climbing.. its a win win..
