by Kristian Munkholm » Tue May 19, 2015 9:07 am
Thanks, Bert.
Perhaps calling it disappointing is a bit of a stretch. Nonetheless, though numbers aren't everything, a few of them can illustrate my point.
I have been on three dedicated herping trips to Israel (won't include our family vacation in the comparison, premises were too different). On each of those three trips I arrived on a Friday. If I look at the finds for the period Friday afternoon - Sunday evening they line up like this:
2011
Vipers (specimens / species): 19/4
Other snakes (specimens / species): 9/7
Other herps (species): 20
2014
Vipers (specimens / species): 14/5
Other snakes (specimens / species): 5/5
Other herps (species): 20
2015
Vipers (specimens / species): 2/2
Other snakes (specimens / species): 10/5
Other herps (species): 21
What stands out is obviously the lack of vipers on this year's trip.
Furthermore, I missed 4 out of my 5 top targets and 5 out of my top 6 or 7 (including all my top 4 snake targets).
Finally, while I'm not going to compare the numbers for new species as obviously they get progressively harder to come by, I had thought it realistic to hope for 1 or 2 more.
All that said, I'm still happy with the trip and the joys of finding what I did certainly outweigh the disappointments of not finding what I didn't.
Oh, and do go. You won't find similar diversity in such a small space anywhere else equally close to Europe.