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Michal Szkudlarek wrote:

Yannick Francioli wrote:My first aspis, from 27/02/17

Vipera-2681.JPG

Vipera-2651.JPG

why is this aspis having open mouth?

I don't really know... it yawned 3 times while I was photographing it.

Yannick Francioli wrote:I don't really know... it yawned 3 times while I was photographing it.

The photosession (in situ?!) took that long? Lucky you... Try that with a bosniensis...

Berislav Horvatic wrote:

Yannick Francioli wrote:I don't really know... it yawned 3 times while I was photographing it.

The photosession (in situ?!) took that long? Lucky you... Try that with a bosniensis...

Got two very friendly Asp vipers this morning. I stayed like 10 minutes with one basking 50cm from me, it never moved. Came back 15 minutes later and was still there.

Bero, you always claim bosniensis to be more shy than other vipers. Have you stalked them in 'bad' weather? Or is moderately warm, cloudy weather rare in that area? I would venture that if the assumed difference is real, it would rather be due to conditions than in the animals' genes...?

In my own expirence, lowland bosniensis is quite calm, i made some in situ shots with distance not more then 15cm in cloudy weather. Here is one shot taken with my mobile phone last saturday, distance is about 50cm.

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:Bero, you always claim bosniensis to be more shy than other vipers. Have you stalked them in 'bad' weather?
Or is moderately warm, cloudy weather rare in that area? I would venture that if the assumed difference is
real, it would rather be due to conditions than in the animals' genes...?

I would agree with that. In our best spots V. b. bosniensis shares its habitat with humans, so maybe they got
used to disappear as soon as possible. But believe me, they do it as quickly as a gemonensis. When you see
a snake, you have but one second to react - which means, to jump like a tiger and grab it.
Yes, some lucky guys, on very rare occasions, did manage in situ photos. I know of only two cases.

Berislav Horvatic wrote:

Yannick Francioli wrote:I don't really know... it yawned 3 times while I was photographing it.

The photosession (in situ?!) took that long? Lucky you... Try that with a bosniensis...

Yes aspis can be really calm, I stayed next to this one during about 20 minutes, it didn't care at all, it yawned a few times, changed position... Was a great photo shoot

Here is another yawning picture:


And a viper I saw today:

Arvalis

Spring arrived in Denmark last weekend.

Unfortunately I didn't have the time to put it to good use.

Then came a busy work week full of sunshine through the office window.

When the weekend finally arrived the weather turned worse again. Yesterday morning it was cold, gray, wet and windy, today it isn't wet yet, but the afternoon forecast includes snow.

Thankfully, the sun broke through for an hour or two yesterday afternoon and conditions seemed just good enough that at least something ought to be out...

I was visiting my parents on Funen and broke up a little early to give myself a chance somewhere on the way home. All of my favourite local spots were out of range so I decided on a short detour to a spot some 25 minutes south of their house that I discovered a couple of years ago. I had been there twice with good results, but both times in July so I wasn't entirely sure where to search in March.

After a few minutes walking around the area I was a bit surprised when my first reptile of the year wasn't an adder, but this guy, apparently the first of the year for Denmark.



A few minutes later, the next one.



After some 40 minutes the clouds were movig in again, it wa getting colder, and I had to move on. I had all but given up on finding anything else when one last check revealed this.

Today (12*C, cloudy and rainy) I observed mating Bufo bufo and one Rana temporaria plus one big Pelophylax esculentus complex on a bank who fast jumped into water.


B. b. bufo male in water