fieldherping.eu

Dear friends,

Just got back from my nature loving in laws, where i had as usual a blast looking for all sorts of critters. It`s kind of tough herping with a two month old daughter in the blazing summer sun, but i love a good challenge!

We visited most of the country, from the romanian border to the ukrainean one, from the many lakes down south to the huge forests up north.



We saw many bugs while walking the baby:







The evenings were usually spent birding. A few lifers were encountered, but only two were confident enough to be approached with a P&S:



Ok, enough small talk; i`ll move on to the herps now.







Now here is the cool thing about herping in Moldova, you never know when you will make a nice range extention for some critically endangered species. Last one was the Smooth Snake - viewtopic.php?f=12&t=46
This year was the Commonn Spadefoot`s time:



Can`t wait till next time; who knows what surprise Moldova will have for us.

Happy herping!
Vlad

Congratulations on the great find, Vlad!

Is that another Pelobates fuscus under the first one? Were they trapped in a well?

Hi Tom,

I looked at all the pictures carefully, and there seems to be just one Spadefoot. Indeed, the toads were trapped in an underground structure, but not a well. I believe it to be some kind of big abandoned fuel deposit.
Anyway, all abandoned (farm) buildings make great wildlife spots. From owls in the roof to cool spiders and moths in the corners and who knows what kind of herps fallen in holes...
Can`t wait to check some more `traps` as the season ends. Fun for me finding herps late in the year, good for the animals that get rescued that might still have some chance to hibernate.

Cheers!
Vlad