First adder of 2011 and its black!
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:44 amAt last the weather has warmed enough for some decent UK herping.. I went out to some of my usual berus sites on Friday.. a bit tired as I had not long been home from the Canary islands, but I was desperate to see some local snakes..the weather had reached an unbarable 9 degrees and was overcast. I was not hopeful but on site for less than ten minutes and I saw a stunning black berus coiled under blackberry,next to some tin refugia.. I was so excited that my frantic attemps to set my camera up flushed the stunning animal.. I sat thinking that a lesson had been learnt.. even if you are not expecting anything, have your kit sorted! As I progressed around the site I saw another very wary berus basking on a bank, it left when I was still a good distance away..
I headed home very happy and called Illian, we had arranged to meet up on Saturday and I hoped to show him some good sites for berus, Lissotriton helveticus and Triturus cristatus, as these were needed ticks for him.. they are hard to find in Bulgaria!
I picked Illian up and we headed for a number of sites all over Kent,I must admit I did feel a bit of pressure, trying to locate a number of species, to help a friend see new animals and show off some of the herps from my home country (we dont have many )
I will let Illian give you the details of the trip in his own report.. I will however leave you with some berus pictures
We had a top day.. if anybody is visiting the UK and would like to get some herping in,please feel free to get in touch and meet up.
I headed home very happy and called Illian, we had arranged to meet up on Saturday and I hoped to show him some good sites for berus, Lissotriton helveticus and Triturus cristatus, as these were needed ticks for him.. they are hard to find in Bulgaria!
I picked Illian up and we headed for a number of sites all over Kent,I must admit I did feel a bit of pressure, trying to locate a number of species, to help a friend see new animals and show off some of the herps from my home country (we dont have many )
I will let Illian give you the details of the trip in his own report.. I will however leave you with some berus pictures We had a top day.. if anybody is visiting the UK and would like to get some herping in,please feel free to get in touch and meet up.
I'll be posting the whole story here soon!