Introduction and some pictures
Posted: Tue May 12, 2015 1:11 amHello,
my name is Michael Wilms and I'm from South-Western Germany.
I'm interested in herps and especially in snakes since many years. After I kept several diffenrent snakes my interests went more and more in finding them in nature and take pictures, what I like today much more than keeping them.
In the last few years I regularly go herping in an radius of ca. 150-200 kilometers of my home in the german states Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hessia and along the border to France and to Switzerland.
I visit here regularly habitats of Viper berus, Vipera aspis, Natrix natrix sp., Natrix tesselata, Coronella austriaca and Zamenis longissimus.
My interests are not only in finding the herps (especially snakes) and take pictures of them, but also compare the habitats of different locations where the same snakes live and to re-find specimen, which I already took pictures of.
Especially with Vipera berus and Vipera aspis I try this by taking good pictures of their individual (head) maculation.
In 2013 I made a 3,5-week trip to Croatia, nearly all the time the focus was on herping. To get informations I read a lot of trip reports, also here. Many informations from this trip reports and from this board were very useful and helpful!
That is one reason, why I decided to eventually register me here and after two years I wrote trip report, which I also want to provide here. You could say, I want to give something back!
To introduce me and my insterests (or better my passion) I will post some pictures I took in the last years (most of them in the last two years).
First some Natrix natrix helvetica from just around the corner of my home. In 2012 I also found babies there near their nest and rests of eggshells. I observed, how they spread and some of them first swam so some water lily pads and laid on them.
Then some Natrix tesselata from the german river Nahe (Rhineland-Palatinate).
Some Coronella austriaca from around the german river Nahe (Rhineland-Palatinate) and around the german state Hessia near it's capital Wiesbaden.
Zamenis longissimus from round the german state Hessia near it's capital Wiesbaden. I also visited them along the german river Neckar (Hessia / Baden-Wuerttemberg), but it was just two weeks ago and I did not have time to have a closer look at the pictures.
Vipera berus from the northern Black Forest (Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany). I also visited them in the southern Black Forest (Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany), but that was just this spring and I did not have a closer look at the pictures either.
The black one I found the whole summer of 2011 always on the same 4 sun spots according to where the sun was and I knew it's hiding place. Unfortunatly it did not come back next spring to this place.
Vipera aspis from the southern Black Forest (Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany).
Vipera aspis from the french Vosges mountains. In 2014 I visited them at the breeding or mating season and took pictures of it. I also found a beautiful orange or nearly red colored one.
I observed a mating of 2 male and 1 female V. aspis (also french Vosges mountains).
Then I even observed how the orange colored male several times also tried to join them mating. But one of the 2 normal colored males did not let him. Here you can see him come closer to them for two times and lying around next to them waiting for his chance.
If you like this V. aspis mating pictures and the ones of the orange colored from the french Vosges mountains and you are interested in it, I think I have some more. So I could send them in a new extra thread, if you want.
My pictures from Croatia I will also send in an extra thread, like I told you at the beginning.
Here is only a little impression of my Croatia trip, of which a trip report will follow.
So, I hope you now have an idea of what my passion is.
And I also hope, this is not too long or too much for the first time.
It got more than I thougth!
my name is Michael Wilms and I'm from South-Western Germany.
I'm interested in herps and especially in snakes since many years. After I kept several diffenrent snakes my interests went more and more in finding them in nature and take pictures, what I like today much more than keeping them.
In the last few years I regularly go herping in an radius of ca. 150-200 kilometers of my home in the german states Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hessia and along the border to France and to Switzerland.
I visit here regularly habitats of Viper berus, Vipera aspis, Natrix natrix sp., Natrix tesselata, Coronella austriaca and Zamenis longissimus.
My interests are not only in finding the herps (especially snakes) and take pictures of them, but also compare the habitats of different locations where the same snakes live and to re-find specimen, which I already took pictures of.
Especially with Vipera berus and Vipera aspis I try this by taking good pictures of their individual (head) maculation.
In 2013 I made a 3,5-week trip to Croatia, nearly all the time the focus was on herping. To get informations I read a lot of trip reports, also here. Many informations from this trip reports and from this board were very useful and helpful!
That is one reason, why I decided to eventually register me here and after two years I wrote trip report, which I also want to provide here. You could say, I want to give something back!
To introduce me and my insterests (or better my passion) I will post some pictures I took in the last years (most of them in the last two years).
First some Natrix natrix helvetica from just around the corner of my home. In 2012 I also found babies there near their nest and rests of eggshells. I observed, how they spread and some of them first swam so some water lily pads and laid on them.
Then some Natrix tesselata from the german river Nahe (Rhineland-Palatinate).
Some Coronella austriaca from around the german river Nahe (Rhineland-Palatinate) and around the german state Hessia near it's capital Wiesbaden.
Zamenis longissimus from round the german state Hessia near it's capital Wiesbaden. I also visited them along the german river Neckar (Hessia / Baden-Wuerttemberg), but it was just two weeks ago and I did not have time to have a closer look at the pictures.
Vipera berus from the northern Black Forest (Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany). I also visited them in the southern Black Forest (Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany), but that was just this spring and I did not have a closer look at the pictures either.
The black one I found the whole summer of 2011 always on the same 4 sun spots according to where the sun was and I knew it's hiding place. Unfortunatly it did not come back next spring to this place.
Vipera aspis from the southern Black Forest (Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany).
Vipera aspis from the french Vosges mountains. In 2014 I visited them at the breeding or mating season and took pictures of it. I also found a beautiful orange or nearly red colored one.
I observed a mating of 2 male and 1 female V. aspis (also french Vosges mountains).
Then I even observed how the orange colored male several times also tried to join them mating. But one of the 2 normal colored males did not let him. Here you can see him come closer to them for two times and lying around next to them waiting for his chance.
If you like this V. aspis mating pictures and the ones of the orange colored from the french Vosges mountains and you are interested in it, I think I have some more. So I could send them in a new extra thread, if you want.
My pictures from Croatia I will also send in an extra thread, like I told you at the beginning.
Here is only a little impression of my Croatia trip, of which a trip report will follow.
So, I hope you now have an idea of what my passion is.
And I also hope, this is not too long or too much for the first time.
It got more than I thougth!
Nice pictures.
