Croatia, April 2016

[Martin Ertner]

Now I have got a time for write a small report for this forum .. On the begining of April I was with my friend in Croatia. Our plan was to find and take photos of reptiles - mainly horned vipers.
We had not a lot of time. Start of our trip was on Tuesday and on Friday I was back home..but we had a lucky. It was nice weather and really good place for reptiles.
On Tuesday about 11am we started with finding and found Pseudopus apodus and first Hierophis viridiflavus carbonarius. In the evening we found Euscorpius sp. and our first Vipera ammodytes it was nice young snake Before sunset we found a lot of Podarcis melisellensis and two other Green whip snakes.
On Wednesday we woke up very early and in sunrise we found many sheltopusiks.
Around midday we wanted to take some pictures of birds but we found first beautiful Zamenis longissimus and it was little bit better than birds for me!
It was about 4pm when we found other awesome snake - Elaphe quatuorlineata unfortunately it wasn't good light for taking pictures so I have got only one.
We went to the tent about 2am because we tried to find scorpions under UV light
Thursday was our last day for herping and it was very windy. I thought that it is not good for reptiles but on this day we found three adults of Horned viper (2x male and 1x female), lot of Green whip snakes, two Natrix natrix and many many lizards..
On Friday in the morning we woke up to rainy day but we was happy because of our successful herptrip

On this report is not everything but only most important things for me
I hope that there is not many mistakes it is my first report..

Species of our short herptrip:
Hyla arborea

Lacerta viridis
Podarcis melisellensis
Algyroides nigropunctatus
Podarcis siculus
Anguis fragilis
Pseudopus apodus

Natrix natrix
Zamenis longissimus
Elaphe quartuorlineata
Hierophis viridiflavus
Vipera ammodytes

[Martin Ertner]

Some more pictures

[Martin Ertner]

And the last pictures..

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Excellent! Now where is Bero with his dogma that this is too early in the year for ammodytes?

[Berislav Horvatic]

Excellent! Now where is Bero with his dogma that this is too early in the year for ammodytes?

No dogma, just personal experience. Ask Mario about our trip to Dalmatia 14 - 17 April 2006
- eight quite able people, four days in the field, in Dalmatia, and not a single ammodytes.
Shit does happen sometimes, but sometimes it doesn't.

[Alexandre Roux]

Don't forget we had a really pleasant April this year
Anyway, there's always a chance to find vipers from March to November in that area (as it is the case for V.aspis in France almost all year round).

[Berislav Horvatic]

Don't forget we had a really pleasant April this year
Anyway, there's always a chance to find vipers from March to November in that area
(as it is the case for V.aspis in France almost all year round).

Yes, there's always a CHANCE (= probability), but chances are expressed in percentages,
between 0% and 100%. Who knows (in advance) what is going to befall you in a particular
April, at a particular place...? You might get very lucky or not at all, but on the average,
the statistical expectations are something to take into account before you go. That's all
I meant. The long-term statistics was unfavourable, but they struck luck - good for them
and for all of us.

[Martin Ertner]

It was luck maybe but there was really nice weather and my friend was there in the middle of March and saw about 15 ammodytes. So I think it depends on the weather more then on season of the year.
I'm happy that I saw them and took some pictures what I wanted..

[Bert Vandebosch]

Nice result for a few days of herping.
The picture of Hierophis viridiflavus seems to be a Hierophis gemonensis.

[Mario Schweiger]

The picture of Hierophis viridiflavus seems to be a Hierophis gemonensis.

not sure.
do you have another pic of that specimen?