Hi guys,
The cold is arriving to Spain, and we decided to expend last weekend in Picos de Europa to say good bye to the season. Our goal was to find a strange individual of Picos de Europa of Vipera seoanei with "kaznakovi" morphotype. We hadn´t exact spots and we didn´t ask for it, we wanted to try by ourselves. Me and Alejandro Carreras, a young promise for the spanish herpetology.
First day we met in Picos de Europa with a friend, Nocko and he was with a friend. First day we visited a place that they know with many "bilineata" individuals of seoanei. The day began good, and we could see a normal bilineata. Nockos friend saw 2 more but they escaped... many Podarcis muralis, a few Lacerta bilineata but not more...
After eating we visited other place and Nockos car broke, so he and his friend decided to return to home. Alejandro and me were studing the weather and we decided to expend a day more in Picos de Europa. During the night was rainning but the tent was enought strong against the rains.
We visited one of the most common spots in Picos. It was full of people. The metamorfic newts and Alytes were everywhere, even being hitting with the sun. Some lizards also appear with the sun. Seeing so many people we decided to leave that place and go to more calm places.
We continue with the car and we found a DOR snake in road. It was a Vipera seoanei with a not very contrasted bilineata morph. We stopped the car and continue walking in the habitat and we found a very nice unicolour seoanei basking (also in the tail with a slight bilineata). And just a few moments later, the amazing kaznakovi morphotype, one of the nicest vipers in Europe.
After some photos and seeing that weather would be worse and worse according to forecast we decided to return to Madrid. In Burgos we made a quick stop. No reptiles actived, only a Coronella girondica DOR of days later and flipping stones the only herp was a nice Epidalea calamita.
With this trip we say good bye to the season. Hopefully in march we will continue herping! More photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrimtnezmarmol/
Cheers and hope that you find the short trip interesting