We also went to some rocky hills near the village but found nothing but predated tortoise eggs, shed snake skin and rarely lizards.
Malki Voden:
We went to that village because of a spot we knew with some huge Dolichophis caspius. We found one which was inside a deep hole in the ground under a big concrete piece (probbably of a rodent). We managed to see only his head before he dissapeared further down the hole. There was no way to get it out, so we left the snake alone. The only thing we found after that were a few lizards.
Madjarovo:
We went for a long walk to the Arda river running close to the town of Madjarovo. There's the same oak forest as in Borislavtzi but also huge rock faces along the valley and therefore the water is crystal clear (most of the time) because there's not much mud. Instead the shores of the river are covered in stones and sand. Again, the habitat was great, it was warm and sunny but because of the wind there were no snakes,exept a N.tessellata swimming in the river. I also saw a "rusty" colored E.orbicularis but it dived before I could get a photo.
Even snake food could be found...but yet, no snakes
The last day morning it started raining heavily and we stayed in the house in Borislavtzi. It stopped after 2-3 hours or so and we went for a walk to a place on the shore with some rocks.
By that time I had given up searching for snakes but my girlfriend started flipping stones and found a worm snake but it disappeared in the ground before I got there. I started flipping stones, too and soon found two more individuals - a juvenile and an adult.
This juvenile,when cought, typicaly for snakes threw up some of it's food - ant eggs (the whitish thing on my hand)
With 9 species of amphibians and 24 species of reptiles that can be found in that part of the country I was a little mad to that wind but we still had a really great time! Thank you all for looking!
Species found:
1. Pelophylax ridibundus
2. Rana dalmatina
3. Testudo graeca
4. Testudo hermanni
5. Emys orbicularis
6. Mediodactylus kotschyi
7. Podarcis tauricus
8. Lacerta viridis
9. Lacerta trillineata
10. Pseudopus apodus
11. Typhlops vermicularis
12. Natrix tessellata
