The house we stayed in had a couple of acres of garden. In anticipation of the upcoming milder weather I placed out some corrugated metal sheets that had been in the barn. Although the weather was cold and snowy at first the temperatures eventually increased, and with it reptile activity. The Eastern Green Lizards (Lacerta viridis) that held territories around the stick piles and stacked roof tiles were soon showing off and became used to my looming presence. The insight into the comings and goings of the wildlife in a village garden in rural Bulgaria was fascinating.
March. For our arrival and sometime afterwards the garden and our village was no place for reptiles. The sun would show occasionally but the nights were very cold. Red Squirrels were fairly common along with Syrian, Green, Greater and Lesser-spotted Woodpecker, Hawfinch and Serin. A single Levant Sparrowhawk was a favourite early spot.
Our barn and the stick pile on the right of the path.
Snow in the lane outside.
Red Squirrel.
Tin shelters placed out.
During a brief sunny spell a first Lacerta viridis turned up during a walk to the local waterfall on 17th March. A week later three more individuals were spotted along the same route. By then juvenile Slow Worms (Anguis fragilis) had become the first reptiles to appear in the garden, under the tin shelters.
Early L.viridis
The first L.viridis turned up in the garden stick pile on the 25th March, three adults and a couple of brown juveniles. By then I was also noticing lizards along the verges and in the undergrowth around the village lanes.
Other wildlife activity at this time included hedgehogs in the garden and one morning at 3.15 a.m. my wife woke me to listen to European jackals calling somewhere nearby.
Agile Frogs (Rana dalmatina) began appearing around the village ponds and also Green Toads (Bufo viridis). During our stay both species appeared in the garden.
