After being absent for a while I can finally, now I’ve actually got a few minutes, and a laptop.. post a few shakey offerings..
Back in May, my girlfriend and I decided to get a bit of summer sun, as Blighty was as ever cold and very damp… I hunted around and came up with a nice hotel on the island of Menorca.. this was to be a romantic, non herping trip, so Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the hotel was in walking distance to a colony of Teira perspicillata, the Moroccan rock lizard, a much needed tick for my little list.. I know, mad coincidence right.. how do these things happen?
After a short flight, an updgrade to a suite at the hotel and unpacking, my girlfriend and I went for a lovely walk along the promenade towards a light house, the lighthouse was surrounded by an old dry stone wall and it was here I hoped to see Teira.
My girlfriend is enthusiastic, but new to herping.. as we neared the spot a few large wall lizards scurried across the path.. “is that what your looking for” she asked.. “no” I replied having seen siculus on many occasions, and whilst pretty it was no longer on my wanted tick list. Every few hundred metres she asked “is that what your looking for”?..every time, I politely explained that “that was a wall lizard, and not what we where after”. not wishing to dent her enthusiasm for her newly found hobby of herping, and the fact she does look mint in a bikini..nicer than Bobby even…
When we reached the headland where the lighthouse sat, I grew despondent as the weather had crapped out and was now very overcast, with strong onshore winds, rapidly bringing the temperature down. I searched along the dry stones walls for a while, finding nothing.. I sulkily explained that today was probably not the right day to find rock lizards as they like to bask in sunshine, and it was too cold and windy.. Ali keep searching whilst cursed the weather.. “is this it” she said.. I huffed over expecting to find another sicula.. but no.. Ali had found it .. a beautiful juvenile Tiera.. my mood instantly perked up.. Tiera on my list..
I still wanted and adult though, we skirted the headland and in the corner of a wall on a side out of the wind we found a few adults, including a very handsome spotty individual.. to say I was stoked is an understatement. After several photos we headed back.
The following day, and completely unrelated to finding the Tiera, I asked Ali to marry me and obviously she said yes, despite my very small euro tick list (not prison slang)
After spending most of the day on a deserted beach, we decided to go for a coastal walk.. as we clambered over the volcanic rocks in a small cove, my fiancée shouted “ I’ve just seen a big black lizard”.. “no you haven’t” I shouted back, and pompously went off on one about lilfordi, islet populations, no mainland records for this area etc.. Ali looked at me with the distain only an Essex girl can muster and said, “I can still see it, its big and its all black” I climbed over, ready with an “ I told you so” and expecting to see a dark coloured sicula..but no, looking at me from the side of a rock was a large lilfordi… another was seen a short while later.. no camera as it was a day of getting engaged not herping! And my camera weights a ton.
The rest of the trip was spent swimming or sunbathing and only sicula to be seen.. an engagement and a new tick ..a win win…
Cheers
Pauli