Herping in Central Finland !

Norway, Sweden, Finland, Baltic Republics

Herping in Central Finland !

Postby Borji Heras » Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:43 am

During the first half of July i visited Finland .
I asked to a forum - mate- Marttin- ,if he could help me finding any adder in his country and he accepted .
We herped one afternoon and one morning , with not really chances of finding anything because the temperatures were about 30º and with a very dry weather

The first day , we went to the herping site at...20:00 more or less , little sun , but 28ºc and altough we were literally eaten by mosquitos , Marttin was able to find 3 adders , 2 males , and another one that scaped. :D
The next morning , in the same area , we found a big female basking , surely gravid ,a shed , and many zootocas , later , Marttin´s friend - Roel - another forum mate , saw another one at a different spot in the top of a little hill but it was hidding and he was not able to catch it.
We also tried to find slow worms , but central finland is the limit of the distribution for this species and we were unlucky. :(

I really enjoyed my time in Finland ,really nice people (Marttin and friends) , awesome landscapes and lots of thing to do ;) !
I am sorry for the picture quality but here are some pictures of the Finnish Adders:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65932895@N07/


Best Regards
Borja
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Re: Herping in Central Finland !

Postby Joel Rahkonen » Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:45 am

Hi Borja! Nice photos! We had a good trip. Instead of the slow worms we found something else interesting in the slow worm area: snow in the middle of the summer! : )

[img]

[img]
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Re: Herping in Central Finland !

Postby Borji Heras » Thu Aug 04, 2011 1:29 pm

Yes ! it was really surprising ! i would never expect it.

even swith such high temperatures , buried snow
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Re: Herping in Central Finland !

Postby Martti Niskanen » Thu Aug 04, 2011 5:15 pm

It was nice to have you over and it was fortunate that we managed to find adders even with the heat (which incidentally just finished a couple of days ago. July was the hottest in 50 years). It was hot and dry for weeks and when Borja came over, the temperature didn't dip much below 25 degrees even during the night. Perfect for sauna and swimming, though :)

Here are a few photos of the herping action with Borja and Joel:

Disclaimer: I personally never handle snakes unless it's absolutely necessary. However, I considered catching the snakes justifiable this time as Borja had traveled a long way just to see the adders. In hot weather like this, if the snake escapes underground, it won't come back out in a hurry. We therefore caught the snakes with gloves for a close look and photography and then released them where found as soon as possible to keep the unnecessary stress to a minimum.

Image

Image

Cheers.

Martti
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Re: Herping in Central Finland !

Postby Gabriel Martínez » Fri Aug 05, 2011 12:54 pm

Nice vipers guys! Borji, I would have prefered to see the adders in the snow but in august it´s impossible (except in Anguis habitat :roll: ). You know now two Pelias species so it´s cool to compare the seoanei of your home with these finlands animals.

Martti Niskanen wrote:I personally never handle snakes unless it's absolutely necessary. However, I considered catching the snakes justifiable this time as Borja had traveled a long way just to see the adders. In hot weather like this, if the snake escapes underground, it won't come back out in a hurry. We therefore caught the snakes with gloves for a close look and photography and then released them where found as soon as possible to keep the unnecessary stress to a minimum.


Excellent Martti, excellent...
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