Dolna Studena is a village in the Danubian Plain of Bulgaria, situated on the Yantra river. Most of the area is a wide plain and agricultural land but on the eastern shore of the river there are some hills with a patch of forest on the northern slopes and bushes and rocks on the southern. That's where me and my girlfriend went first.The weather was very warm and sunny.
While we were crossing the river I photographed the most common herp here – the Marsh Frog (Pelophylax ridibundus)
Soon after that we realized the Balkan Wall Lizard (Podarcis tauricus) was the next most common animal after the frogs.They were everywhere! There were also Balkan Green Lizards (Lacerta trillineata) and Eastern Green Lizards (Lacerta viridis). As we climbed up the hills the L.trillineata started to disappear and only L.viridis were present on the higher slopes. Unfortunately I didn't managed to photograph L.trillineata.
We also were nicely surprised by the three Spur-thighed Tortoises (Testudo graeca) we found not very far away from each other.
On our way back, down the hills I was lucky to catch a juvenile Large Whip Snake (Dolichophis caspius).
After that we went down to the plains, to an old ruined mill. There was a swamp next to the mill where once the river flew. The swamp was packed with...of course, P.ridibundus. Some of them were huge (20 cm or more)! The ruines of the mill were full of Dice Snakes (Natrix tesselata).More than 15 individuals were observed,mostly juveniles. My girlfriend also saw another D.caspius,but until I got to the spot where she was the snake went into the tall grasses and I couldn't relocate it.
It was a nice trip and we'll surely be back to Dolna Studena,soon!
Thank's for looking!