Lycian Coast 2015

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Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Frank Paul Fietz » Wed Jul 01, 2015 10:07 pm

Hi Folks,

again I spend two weeks at the Lycian Coast in spring this year.
In 2015 our Easter holidays had been extremely early. It already started at March, 28th.

It was striking that flora and fauna was pretty different to years before, when our holidays had been about 2 weeks later.
I have never spotted so many different birds (I remember a birding English man the year before who was very dissapointed).
Herpetofauna was a bit different, but I´ll come to that later.

Weather was o.k. , temperatures at around 20°C with some rain and more sun.

I visited some already well known places (Patara, Kas and surrounding areas) and some new spots (Arykanda, Tlos).
Lycia Kopie.jpg
Spots visited


Around Kas I found the usual suspects.- This year unfortunately no Zamenis hohenackeri tauricus and what was striking, not a single Eirenis modestus. Last year when it was a little bit warmer and 2 weeks later I found abot a dozen of these little snakes:

FrankPaulFietz_000323_2015.jpg
Hatchling of Testudo graeca terrestris


FrankPaulFietz_000387_2015.jpg
Ophisops elegans macrodactylus


FrankPaulFietz_000382_2015.jpg
Portrait of same animal


FrankPaulFietz_000425_2015.jpg
Hemidactylus turcicus


FrankPaulFietz_000450_2015.jpg
same


FrankPaulFietz_000685_2015.jpg
Basking Trachylepis aurata aurata


FrankPaulFietz_000697_2015.jpg
Friendly Laudakia stellio daani


FrankPaulFietz_000713_2015.jpg
Still friendly showing teeth


FrankPaulFietz_001156_2015.jpg
Hierophis caspius


FrankPaulFietz_001122_2015.jpg
Portait of same animal



At the very well known site of Patara ruins it was very different to the year before.- No Eirenis modestus, no Typhlops vermicularis, no Blanus strauchi aporus but due to very hot weather this day dozens of Natrix tesselata and at least some Natrix natrix persa which could be observed praying on little fish.

FrankPaulFietz_000898_2015.jpg
One of many Natrix tesselata


FrankPaulFietz_000930_2015.jpg
Natrix natrix persa


FrankPaulFietz_000767_2015.jpg
Patara ruins. With thousands of Bufo variabilis tadpoles in the ponds


FrankPaulFietz_000764_2015.jpg
Ponds at Patara. Habitat of Natrix n. persa, Natrix tesselata, Pelobates syriacus, Pelophylax ridibundus


FrankPaulFietz_000741_2015.jpg
Tadpole of Pelobates syriacus


FrankPaulFietz_000788_2015.jpg
Pelophylax ridibundus


FrankPaulFietz_000775_2015.jpg
Laudakia stellio daani


FrankPaulFietz_000728_2015.jpg
Bycatch of local fisherman at Patara area


Another day I visited the ruins of Tlos at abot 460m above sea-level. It was warm and sunny with some clouds.
A lot of Testudos were very busy and it was fun to watch their mating game (First time I wished to make video instead of pictures.- My wife did, so maybe I can add this porn.- Without sound it´s just not half fun)

FrankPaulFietz_000510_2015.jpg
Mating Testudo graeca terrestris


After seeing and mostly hearing some big lizards dissapearing, I finally managed to catch one of them with the usual result.

FrankPaulFietz_000559_2015.jpg
Pseudopus apodus


FrankPaulFietz_000566_2015.jpg
Funny shaped tonque of Pseudopus apodus


Some days later with unsteady weather we drove all the way into the montains to the ancient city of Arykanda at about 700m above sea-level.
The sky was grey, light rainfalls and low temperatures around 16°C.

I guess this cold spring was the reason for my hightlight finding which I hadn´t expected that late in the year:

FrankPaulFietz_001221_2015.jpg
Lyciasalamandra luschani finikensis


FrankPaulFietz_001229_2015.jpg
same animal - that nice !


FrankPaulFietz_001237_2015.jpg
Habitat of the Lycian salamander


Again I failed to find a chamaeleon !- I´ll keep on trying !!!!

Species observed but not photographed:
Caretta caretta
Dolichopis jugularis
Mauremys rivulata
Blanus strauchi aporus
Anatolacerta oertzeni finikensis
Ablepharus budaki anatolicus


species expected but not seen:
Ophiomorus punctatissimus
Cyrtipodion kotschyii ciliciensis
Typhlops vermicularis

unfulfilled wishlist:
Chamaeleo chameleon
Hyla arborea
Emys orbicularis
Hemorrhois nummifer
Platyceps collaris
Platyceps najadum
Telescopus fallax
Malpolon insignitus
Eryx jaculus
and the vipers
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Ilias Strachinis » Wed Jul 01, 2015 10:22 pm

I would say this one is a D.jugularis: download/file.php?id=17339&mode=view
:-)
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Mario Schweiger » Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:32 am

Ilias Strachinis wrote:I would say this one is a D.jugularis: http://fieldherping.eu/Forum/download/f ... &mode=view
:-)

same from me!
D. caspius in that area only in higher mountainous regions (if not wrong determined, only 2 records)
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Frank Paul Fietz » Thu Jul 02, 2015 11:31 am

Hi Ilias and Mario,

is this one also jogularis ?

FrankPaulFietz_002839_1.jpg


FrankPaulFietz_002826.jpg


FrankPaulFietz_002744.jpg


Cheers, Frank
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Mario Schweiger » Thu Jul 02, 2015 1:09 pm

Yes, looks like ;)
caspius has an uniform colored belly, jugularis with some darker "clouds" and red spots in juveniles.
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Niklas Ban » Thu Jul 02, 2015 2:26 pm

Nice findings and photography! Is there any literature about the whole Herpetofauna of turkey?
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Frank Paul Fietz » Thu Jul 02, 2015 5:00 pm

Hi Niklas,

I have only got literature for the south-west, but this is superb:

http://shop.laurenti.de/product_info.ph ... cts_id=302

Cheers, Frank
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Niklas Ban » Thu Jul 02, 2015 6:24 pm

Frank Paul Fietz wrote:Hi Niklas,
I have only got literature for the south-west, but this is superb:
http://shop.laurenti.de/product_info.ph ... cts_id=302
Cheers, Frank

Thanks, that was the only book I found specific about turkey, a little bit weird, so much herps and nobody who writes a book about it. :lol:
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Thu Jul 02, 2015 6:46 pm

There's this, but I wouldn't recommend it - outdated and way too concise.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TURKISH-HERPETO ... 9757347388
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Re: Lycian Coast 2015

Postby Mario Schweiger » Fri Jul 03, 2015 6:33 am

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:There's this, but I wouldn't recommend it - outdated and way too concise.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TURKISH-HERPETO ... 9757347388


not worth to buy - or even have a look into it!
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