Saturday 2nd.
After a short sleep and a long journey we arrived in Kotor bay at 17:00 and 29 degrees C! We settled into our apartment in Perast and during a discussion of tomorrows plans I realised that I had left our locations list in the car. I returned to the car and spotted a Sharp snouted rock lizard D oxycephela on the wall of a ruined building, on my return I saw an adult Balkan whip snake H gemonensis basking on a pile of rubble next to the footpath.
Well that seemed an easy start, I thought that maybe I would struggle to find D oxycephela but I ended up seeing a few populations during our stay.In the evening we walked down into town for a meal and our walk back gave us a few H turcicus
Sunday 3rd
We decided that we would have an easy start to the week and headed for a beach on the Lusica peninsular recommended by our landlady. The walk up to the car gave us another H turcicus and another D oxycephela.We stopped in the beautiful walled section of Kotor and soon spotted D oxycephela and Italian wall lizard P [/i[i]]sicula on the walls.
Spotting a roadside stream we pulled over to find lots of tadpoles and a Smooth newt L vulgaris
We soon passed some wetlands and so once again stopped to investigate, in the stream we spotted a pair of Balkan terrapins M rivulata and in a flooded field I soon found a European pond terrapin E obicularis
One of the problems , beside the heat was the amount of large crickets in the undergrowth which I often mistook for fleeing lizards
We failed to find the beach in question and so carried on driving to see what would turn up, we soon found 2 ponds full of frogs Pelophylax ssp,dragonflies and unfortunately a drowned Hermann's tortoise T hermanni. I lifted a stone to reveal a juvenile Grass snake N natrix.
We found another beach and relaxed for a while until I became bored and started to wander along the beach, I spotted the entrance to a small cave and as I neared it I saw a small snake slide very fast up the rock face and into a crack. It was too fast to identify but I had an idea what it could be, I poked a small twig into the hole and out popped a Dahl's whip snake P najadum.
We then climbed over the hill to another beach where we watched a Hummingbird hawk moth feeding from flowers.
On the journey back to Perast we stopped again at the wetlands finding a M rivulata feeding in the stream.
Monday 4th
An early start today and a drive south to Ada island , we arrived at 08:30 and checked out a track at Ada bojana before trying the island. We immediately found some Dalmation wall lizards P melisellensis and then a pair of T hermanni , in fact we found 10 or so in the next 300 metres but little else. Driving on we stopped for a while to watch some Bee eaters.
As we left here I noticed a ditch containing water in the field and so we walked along it finding 2N natrix,a few frogs and 2 E obicularis, as we got to the end of the ditch we crossed over to check out a pile of rubble in the field.I soon found a Slow worm Anguis fragilis and a couple of shed snake skins. Behind the rubble was a small pond and here we found 6 N natrix
Our next stop was Ada island, I paused at the road bridge looking at a large pile of stone where I had been expecting a pond, continuing onto the island we spent some time on the beach again but as usual despite the lack of clothes being worn I soon became bored of the inactivity and went for a walk (with clothes). I walked along the beach looking at piles od rubbish but only found a T hermanni , I soon found lots of artificial cover around a section of the housing complex that was derelict but failed to find anything. This was not what I was expecting from Ada island. I returned to my wife and we went for a walk along a lond track through the bushes and plastic bottles finding a few P melisellensis and feeding several mosquitoes.
We headed for home and stopped at Stari bar for a look at the ruins and to get some food, no herps seen but several bats were emerging from a hole in a wall as we ate our meal.
Tuesday 5th
A huge storm in the night woke us up several times with heavy thunder and so feeling tired we had a late start to the day.A sad sight greeted us as we headed for the car, one of the many local cats had killed and partly eaten a D oxycephela.As Suzanne put a few things into the car, I looked over a wall down into a neighbours garden and was greeted with a lovely sight, an adult Fourline snake E quatuorlineata. I crept down and caught it bringing back up to take a few pictures before releasing it again. It was a great moment for us as not only was it the first one we had ever seen but we also keep a trio of these as pets. It had obviosly just raided someones hen house as we could feel 3 hens eggs in its stomach
Leaving Kotor we headed for Lovcen national park, stopping en route to admire the view of the bay I noticed a lizard slip away between the rocks. I thought to my self "We are at altitude, we are on karst landscape, they are very secretive maybe they are Mosor rock lizards D mosorensis" As I watched, I spotted a few more and realised that they were D oxycephela
We carried on with our journey climbing higher and higher and eventually arrived at Lovcen, we stopped and searched likely locations for Nose horned vipers V ammodytes but failed to find any despite a good effort.Turning our attention to flipping roadside stones we soon found several Wall lizards P muralis and a pair of A fragilis in a courtship display
We decided to return to our previous location to get a few pictures of the lizards, I was trying to photograph a very blue male that just would not come out of his hiding place. I grew bored of this and so turned to leave, I looked down to check my footing on the uneven surace and saw to my delight a Cat snake T fallax
Driving down the road I recognised the bright yellow lump in the road as an RTA Balkan green lizard L trilineata, I walked back to confirm it and also spotted a Glass lizard P adopus and a hatchling Aesculapian snake Z longissima in the bushes.
Wednesday 6th
Today was to have been the highlight of our trip (in theory), I was planning on showing Suzanne the colourful V ammodytes of lake Skadar but it was not to be.We stopped at the lake edge and quickly found a juvenile L trilineata, several Dice snakes N tessellata and a Dalmation Algyroides A nigropunctatus.
We stopped for a coffee at the restaurant and then walked along the lake edge towards the fortress of Lesendro seeing plenty of P melisellensis, P muralis and N tessellata. At the junction of the lake and island was an area of floating rubbish and plastic bottles, this area was full of N tessellata. When we got to Lesendro I caught an adult N tessellata and as I went to put it in the water I noticed a floating T hermanni. I dropped a small stone next ti it and noticed one of the legs moved so I climbed down and rescued it.
As we walked back along the lake edge to the car a large dark snake slid very fast in front of me down the bank and disappeared into the roots of a bush, I tried to catch it but was too slow. My first thoughts were Large whip snake D caspius but they are not supposed to be in this location, Suzanne said out loud "That was no f*****g Dice snake" I had just been watching them for an hour and had to agree with her.
.We left here and headed to a nearby valley, stopping in a layby we found a T hermanni on the path by a ruined cottage. On the banks of a nearby stream we found Marsh frogs P ribidundus and a young Agile frog R dalmatina. Crossing from here into a meadow we found a few P adopus among the bushes and then a pair of terrapins further upstream, 2 DOR Common toads B bufo were seen near the houses. It became too hot to carry on and so we headed to Virpazar for a well earned cool beer.
When we got back to Perast we were greeted by the sight of a D oxycephela on the wall
Thursday 7th
We took a drive to the tip of Tivat peninsular across the bay from us as we could see there had been a fire there previously and the ground looked clear and accessable, when we got there we found it too steep and too scrubby so headed back up the hill to the D oxycephela location. I managed to get a few nice pictures and headed back to Suzanne only to find that she had been taking photos of one by her foot.
We drove down the road and stopped at a random location where we saw some steps leading down the bank, these led to a platformm under the road for mountain floodwater, here we saw 2 P adopus. While walking back to the car I saw a L trilineata and anther P adopus but when I looked over the wall I noticed a snake curled in the branches 2 metres from the ground. I got very excited at this as my first thoughts were that it must be a Z longissima but unless I am mistaken it is a H gemonensis.
Our next stop was back in Kotor to see the lizards on the walls, the usual D oxycephela and P siculus
Arriving back at the apartment I looked over the wall again and saw a familiar face sticking out from beneath a stone, I then checked out some rocky terraces behind finding 2 P adopus, 2 H gemonensis and 5 T hermanni
Friday 8th
Suzanne joined me for a quick look across the road before we set out for the day and we found a D oxycephela and 2 T hermanni. We drove to the north end of the bay and took a road into the hills stopping at a small graveyard where we found a P adopus. We carried on up into the hills finding L trilineata H gemonensis, Green lizards L viridis with blue throats and a number of P muralis.At one point the road got a bit tricky as a large boulder had almost blocked the road.
Leaving the hill tops we headed back down towards the coast and were surprised to find a walled pond, even more surprised to look in and see 3 N natrixand lots of L vulgaris, another pond was found close by which also contained 3 N natrix and lots of L vulgaris
We headed on down and stopped to watch this Shrike, the first we have seen.
Saturday 9th
With great sadness we left this beautiful country, stopping at lake Skadar with the chance of finding the elusive snake but it will have to remain a mystery as we only found the usual lizards and snakes, but I will be back one day that's for sure.
Seen
Cat snake
Dahl's whip
Fourline snake
Dice snake
Grass snake
Balkan whip snake
Aesculapian
Balkan green lizard
Green lizard
Wall lizard
Italian wall lizard
Dalmation wall lizard
Sharp snouted rock lizard
Glass lizard
Dalmation algyroides
Slow worm
Turkish gecko
Smooth newt
Balkan terrapin
European pond terrapin
Hermann's tortoise
Marsh frog
Agile frog
Common toad DOR
