Freddy from France ...

[Freddy Gontier]

Hello everyone and thank you to Mario for inviting me here !

I am French, I am 60 years old. I live in west of France.
I no longer work because I am retired now.

I am not, strictly speaking, a confirmed herpetologist as many of you here because I am not particularly interested in snakes, lizards or frogs ... I'm just a very modest amateur naturalist mainly interested in studying mediterranean tortoises in their natural environments and particulary in the recognition of various taxa of Testudo hermanni, Testudo hercegovinensis and Testudo boettgeri ...

My passion for turtles is old and dates from my childhood ... probably because my grandmother had two turtles in her garden ...

I've done some research in France, Sardinia and the Balkans (Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Greece).

This year, I will explore in Serbia, Romania, the Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece.

It is through the very beautiful photographs of Aleksander Simovic I came to you ...

If Mario is ok, I could send you here some photographic documentation of my research ...

In the meantime, here's some info on my past research:

In Croatia in 2007:

http://www.ciopa.hr/izvjesce_francuzi.htm

http://www.ciopa.hr/vijesti.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxvASJFo ... re=related


In Greece in 2008 and 2009:

http://pelops.org/fs/fs.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEYVHTqzUp4


Here in the greek Peloponnese in 2010:





I found there a tortoise basking with … two snakes ...!



Among all the turtles I discovered in nature, it was the first time in my life I saw such a scene !


Sincerely

Freddy

[Vlad Cioflec]

Welcome to the boards Freddy!

That last pic was really awesome , thanks for sharing.
Glad to hear you will visit Romania this year. If you need any info regarding herping spots over here, feel free to contact me.

Cheers!
Vlad

[Mario Schweiger]

Yes Freddy,
awesome scene!

One time in my life I saw an ammodytes basking on top of a Scheltopusik, Pseudopus apodus (Krk island, May 2009), but had no camera with me, although I´ve been only 2 min away from the car. When back - Pseudopus has been away, the ammo was laying nearly on the some spot.

Mario

[Joris Drubbel]

Hi Freddy,
as a new member and turtle/tortoise fan too, welcome!

And regarding the tortoise-snake shot: superpicture!

[Ilian Velikov]

Welcome to the forum, Freddy! Not all of us here are "snake freaks" Turtles & tortoises are my passion as well and my interest in herpetology started with tortoises when I was a kid! Do I need to say that the scene from your last photo is amazing!

[Freddy Gontier]

Hello everybody,

I was quite sure that this photo of a turtle in the company of snakes would please you !

And the turtle was not with one but with two snakes !






As I know very little about snakes, I led, with my stick, the two snakes to go elsewhere to be heated before inspecting the turtle ...

Thank you Vlad and Ilian for your help offer. It's very kind from you. I’ll certainly need you both !

This year, I’ll explore in Romania but only along the Danube in the region of "Iron Gates" and in the Natural Park of the Iron Gates (Banat and Olteni).

Next year I’ll prospect in Romania but in the region of Dobrogea and also in Bulgaria (east Rhodopes Mountains), greek Eastern Macedonia and western Turkey.

This year I especially need information on Serbia and on the Republic of Macedonia. If some of you can give me (perhaps privately) specific locations for these two countries, I’ll be glad to receive them !

Although I know there are lots of turtles there, I abandoned the idea of going for a trip in Kosovo ... because of security reasons ...

Thanks for your help !

[Freddy Gontier]

Hello,

Here is the path of my future research in Romania, Serbia and Macedonia. In blue, the areas of research looking for turtles.



Thank you to those who helped me to define these areas !

Departure is planned within a month. I hope the weather will be fine ...

Photographic report here this summer ...

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

Sweet !