The Catalan Summer

Portugal, Spain, Andorra

The Catalan Summer

Postby Noah Meier » Fri Jul 15, 2016 3:25 pm

Hi guys

I'm just back from two hot weeks in Barcelona. I made vacations with friends there. Regarding the season you can imagine that these weren't meant as "herping-vacations". But as probably everybody in this forum I showed up being unable to spend two weeks only lying at the beach and enjoying the sun. Therefore I used the silent hours from 06.00 to 10.00 O'clock to explore the surroundings of our town near Barcelona with a bicycle.

Sometimes there was a little, little rain during the night. But every morning the temperature was already at 06.00 O'clock at 25 degrees and as soon as the sun spread over the fields it increased to 30-35 degrees. So you see it wasn't an easy game...

But still I saw some herps (otherwise I wouldn't have started this post). The most impressive ones were the Psammodromus algirus because they were still active even during the midday heat!
As I spotted none of the blue spots around their neck I think that most of the 10 specimens I saw were females. All of them seemed to be quite thick (I have no experience with Psammodromus; maybe that's normal), looking like gravid females. This would explain their high level of activity compared with the males.

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Psammodromus algirus

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P.algirus

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And another one...


Visiting a wetland close to the airport of El prat I found one Natrix maura basking at the bottom of a bush at 08.30. In the ponds I saw a lot of Trachemys scripta, also juveniles and one female which was digging in the earth (looked like if she wanted to burry some eggs). Unfortunately there were no Emys and Mauremys. The Trachemys, which were almost everywhere, seemed to be pretty dominant at this place.
My girlfriend, who joined me at this morning found a molting of an at least 1.80 Malpolon monspessulanus male. Later I found two Malpolons DOR... :(

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Habitat of Natrix maura, Malpolon monspessulanus, Psammodromus algirus and Trachemys scripta

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Natrix maura (not very beautiful; a few days before a molting)

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the same in portrait

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Trachemys scripta

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Trachemys scripta juvenile

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T.scripta female digging in the sand...

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Molting of the big Malpolon male

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Acrida ungarica


Along a stone wall I found lots of Tarentola mauritanica, some of the Psammodromus females and a few Podarcis liolepis. Unfortunately I saw no Timon lepidus... but everytime a rabbit fled through the bushes I felt the adrenalin in my veines (Thinking it was a T.lepidus). And there were lots of rabbits, at some mornings I saw at least 30 of them.

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Tarentola mauritanica

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T.mauritanica

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Podarcis liolepis

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P.liolepis

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rabbits

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Psammodromus algirus with a nice butterfly; even though the picture isn't sharp I like the composition)


I saw a lot of (untouched) nature as soon as I got a bit outside of the settlements and eventhough the coasts around Barcelona are very touristic I think there's still a lot of place for reptiles also regarding the extensive way of agriculture in this area. I really enjoyed and hope that I can go back to Spain next spring.

Thanks for reading,
Noah
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Re: The Catalan Summer

Postby Mario Schweiger » Fri Jul 15, 2016 3:41 pm

nice observations and pictures, Noah ;)
yes, all those P. algirus look like females (base of tail)
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Please visit also my personal Herp-site vipersgarden.at
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Re: The Catalan Summer

Postby Noah Meier » Sat Jul 16, 2016 9:50 am

Thank you Mario!
I definitely need to go back one day... as I missed the "overcolored" males of P.algirus. They must look fantastic in mating season (which is obviously not in summer).
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