Malta herping

Malta herping

Postby Kevin Byrnes » Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:41 pm

Following a forum suggestion my girlfriend and I decided to spend our spring herping trip on Malta.
Saturday 9th April
We arrived on a clear but rather windy morning at 10:00 and drove north to Bugibba which was to be our base for the week, our rooms were not ready and so we went for a walk to Qawra point, a small island a few feet from the shore. We hoped to see some Maltese wall lizards Podarcis filolensis here but easily saw 20 or so on our short walk. We crossed to the island but saw only a few on there which surprised me.
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After a lunch at a seafront cafe where we saw more Wall lizards we headed back to the hotel to sort out our room. On the way back I looked over a fence and saw a snake which must have been a juvenile Western whip snake Hierophis gemonensis, instead of taking a picture I tried to catch it and it of course escaped.

Sunday 10th
An early start and back to the beach looking for that snake. We first checked some waste ground finding Ocellated skinks Chalcides ocellatus ,a few Wall lizards and a colony of Moorish Geckos Tarentola mauritanica which were living on a block wall between houses.
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We then drove to the other side of town and checked out a rough bank by some gardens seeing 2 Western Whip snakes that I was not quick enough to either catch or photograph. Turning stones gave us more Ocellated skinks and so we turned our attention to some nearby bushes finding one of the objects of our trip, our first ever Chameleon Chamaeleo chamaeleon.We took some photographs and released it back into the bush and headed off for a beer to celebrate.

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Leaving here we headed for a location very kindly given to us and a smile spread across my face as I recognised from a trip report that I had previously read.We quickly found a few Painted frogs Discoglossus pictus and so added another new species to our list.

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Feeling very happy we drove to another location at Mellieha on the coast, it was very hot so we stopped for lunch and let the afternoon cool down.We then walked to some waste ground where we once again found Ocellated skinks and to my girlfriends delight, another Chameleon!

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Photographs were taken and we took great pleasure in watching it climb back into the bush reaching out for branches with their gripping hands/feet.
An evening trip was undertaken with the hope of finding a Cat snake telescopus fallax lying on one of the lesser used roads but this proved to be unsuccessful. As we passed a wall I noticed some drainage holes in its face and by shining a torch into it we saw 6 Turkish Geckos Hemidactylus turcicus which put todays total to 7 species.

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Monday 11th
A quick stop to see the local Moorish geckos and then on to Cirkewwa to catch the ferry to the island of Gozo. I had seen a few ponds on Google earth and then had one mentioned as a location for the Levant frog Pelophylax bedriagae which would be another new species for me.We could hear the frogs calling as we neared the pond and by slowly moving the vegetation to one side we saw our first Levant frog .
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We drove across the island and visited Dwerja bay, home of Fungus rock and a subspecies of Maltese wall lizard P.f.generalensis, Fungus rock is a large rock in the bay upon which a fungus grows that was claimed to have healing powers. How anyone got onto the rock to find either the fungus or the lizards is beyond me.

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Dwerja bay also has the Turquoise window, an arch over the sea.
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Looking around this area just gave us Wall lizards and Skinks, a situation that was to repeat itself throughout the holiday.

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Driving back to the ferry we stopped at another pond finding some Painted frogs however when we returned to the hire car we found it would not start. The day ended with us being towed onto the fery and then collected by another tow truck in Malta to take us back to our hotel.

Tuesday 12 th
As we had to wait for a new car we decided to have an easy day and so asked the hotel receptionist to pinpoint some local lakes on the map for us. This was to be our fist stop followed by avisit to San Anton gardens in Addatt to see some terapins. The route to the lakes brought another smile to my face as once again I recognised a scene from a field report, a stop here produced Moorish geckos, Painted frogs,Ocellated skinks and Wall lizards

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A stop at the lake area produced the same species but sadly no snakes. The next stop was the gardens, home to the Maltese President and several terrapins, Yellow bellied and Red eared (I think)

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Wednesday 13th
A very windy day and thus an interesting boat trip to the island of Comino, a very rocky place with lots of stone walls. We walked for hours flipping stones and we could see that somebody had previously been there as stones had been moved and not replaced. All we found were 1 Turkish gecko, several Ocellated skinks and lots of Maltese wall lizards, the Comino ones having a white ventral surface. One of the problems with the skinks was that they would lie half buried with their bodies curled looking like the coils of a snake, we were tricked by this many times.

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At one point I decided to walk on a wall instead of along side it, I had taken my second step when a Western whip snake shot into the base of the wall and disappeared. Later as we returned to the harbour I saw another one looking at me from some bushes, I slowly raised my camera only to see it slide away as the image came into focus !!

Thursday 14th
The object of todays search was the Algerian Whip snake Hemorrhois algirus, Maltra is the only location in Europe where this snake occurs and then only around the port of Valetta, it is believed to have been a stowaway on boats. We drove into Valetta and parked the car finding Painted frgs in a small pond next to the carpark. We then began our search of the grounds surrounding the city fortifications, we searched very thoroughly finding plenty of Moorish Geckos and Ocellated skinks but no snakes. We then headed into town for some food passing some Wall lizards that made me stop, they just did not look right, I put it down to my inexperience and the variability of these lizards but they were unlike ones I had seen during the week.

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We returned to the snake site for another search but once again it proved fruitless despite being in the place where they had previously been seen.

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One thing that I found strange about the location was the lack of Wall lizards, it seemed perfect conditions for them but we did not see one until we crossed the road into a cemetery. We headed back to the hotel stopping briefly at some water near Mosta finding Painted frogs.
A walk along the sea front in the evening revealed Wall lizards, Ocellated skinks and a rather smug looking cat with a rather dead looking Juvenile Western Whip snake !!!

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Friday 15th
We woke to a very grey day with rain forecast but as it was our last day we had to try our hardest.A return visit to Valetta produced nothing so we walked into town for a bit of sightseeing. An afternoon trip to look for Chameleons was cancelled due to the rain so we stayed in the bar and sank a few beers.
9 species seen with 4 of them for the first time.
Thanks to Bobby Bok for a few locations and Jeroen Speybroek for his report
Kevin Byrnes
 
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Re: Malta herping

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Tue Apr 19, 2011 11:04 pm

Too bad about algirus, but very nice!
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Re: Malta herping

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:09 am

Nice report and pics!!!
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Re: Malta herping

Postby Bobby Bok » Wed Apr 20, 2011 11:20 am

Very nice Kevin, nice to see you had a good result and nice to see some familiar places as well. In summer almost all those freshwater places where dried out when I was there last year such as the second pond you were at Gozo. Also the wall lizard are more brighter in colouration in your pictures, beautiful little critters.
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Re: Malta herping

Postby Peter Oefinger » Wed Apr 20, 2011 12:07 pm

Very nice coloured lizards!
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Re: Malta herping

Postby Sebastian Holzki » Wed Apr 20, 2011 4:10 pm

Really nice findings and pictures.
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Re: Malta herping

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:04 pm

BTW, please don't pass "our" algirus spot on to anyone...
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Re: Malta herping

Postby Kevin Byrnes » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:41 pm

No, of course not.
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