Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Tue May 29, 2012 3:28 pm

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Is it me? Do expect too much?

I recognise that feeling. Especially when revisiting places, you always want to do better than before, but on the other hand you forget about the euphoria of the first time? If this would be my first Israel trip, I would be very, very happy.
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Tue May 29, 2012 3:31 pm

This is a trashy video, I`m not a good video maker, I just made it for the noise.
It`s for cold silent winter nights, when I sit drunken under the christmas tree to enjoy my winter depression



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jElNjPoN_Q
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Tue May 29, 2012 3:37 pm

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:
Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Is it me? Do expect too much?

I recognise that feeling. Especially when revisiting places, you always want to do better than before, but on the other hand you forget about the euphoria of the first time? If this would be my first Israel trip, I would be very, very happy.


You are right, if this Trip was my first to Israel, I will think there is no chance to make a better trip ever.
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Tue May 29, 2012 3:38 pm

Easy to solve - never go back to the same place ;)

Echis sound is quite impressive - sounds more intimidating than rattlers, actually... Nasty tempered little snakes
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Tue May 29, 2012 3:42 pm

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:Easy to solve - never go back to the same place ;)


Well spoken, but it`s hard to get all 42 Snake species in one Trip! ;)
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Peter Oefinger » Tue May 29, 2012 5:25 pm

Congrats, guys. I think I will stop herping after Miss Marple and her assistant showed me how it really works. Great shots ans impressive species!
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Paul Lambourne » Tue May 29, 2012 7:24 pm

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Is it me? Do expect too much? For me this Trip feels incomplete!


Jurgen, you moany old barstard :D I appreciate Israel is a small country.. but even so we managed to find Walterinnesia, in hundreds of square kilometres of desert.. the odds against that must be huge.. as well as 41 other species.. In the Western Pal, I doubt there are many Countries, other than Spain, that you could get 42 herp species in a week..with the hindrance of an islander rookie :D

I dunno you want the moon on a stick.. :D

Joking aside, I know what you mean.. I am off to Montenegro in a week or so... and unlike my first trip there, where most species were new, this time I can only see four new species..a different style of trip but, however,due to being very very ill last year, it will be a pleasure just to be alive and travelling with friends.. .trying to get better pictures than last time and maybe a few new things..its all a blessing.

For the top boys,( 150 species +) trips must be different.. and difficult... still theres still the Western Pal :D

For the record, I thought the Israel trip was the dogs bollox

Peter, hopefully,if I can get off duty early tomorrow, I may get some berus/orchid pics..yummy, subversive enough for ya? :D
cheers Paul
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Kristian Munkholm » Tue May 29, 2012 7:38 pm

Must... buy... ticket... to... Israel... now!

Excellent report, Paul - leaves me sad I couldn't make it. Part one was magnificent and now you manage to top it off with this. Writing, pictures, finds, all are great :D

Walterinnesia, T. dhara, Varanus (even if you just caught a quick glimpse of one),...there's just too much goodness to choose from.

The only thing lacking is of course a photo of the aging boy band fronted by Aviad donning his full Village People garb. Alas, I fear it could not match the vivid description :lol:

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:
Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Is it me? Do expect too much?

I recognise that feeling. Especially when revisiting places, you always want to do better than before, but on the other hand you forget about the euphoria of the first time? If this would be my first Israel trip, I would be very, very happy.


I know the feeling as well but your result is excellent and you do expect too much. I would have been thrilled.

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Compare this with Kristian`s report May 2011.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=774


Okay, so let's compare...

Yes, I had a spectacular first day.

This was followed by a good second and third day and a likewise good morning the fourth day.

The last day and a half, however, I found only geckoes and Uromastyx!

And in a little more detail...

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:In the Negev Dunes at night we found just one snake Species, normal is three or four.

I had a good night in the Negev dunes but the following night in the Arava dunes I found onlyStenodactylus doriae and tracks of Sphenops!

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:We had a night with not one Snake on the Road!!! Very uncommon during that time of the year.

I had one excellent night of road cruising but the other two nights brought me a combined total of one snake!

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:Normally is that three or four different species of Geckos running on the roads at night, this Trip most of the time it was just one species.

I had one night where I road cruised one gecko species, one with two and one with zero.

Jürgen Gebhart wrote:On the other hand, we flipped tones of Rocks and Trash and found close to nothing, when we found something most of the time it was Chalcides ocellatus.
(For example last year we found two or three Platyceps collaris every Day, this year not one)

Not that I didn't find a bunch of other stuff flipping, but to put this into perspective: I found a grand total of one snake this way!

In all, I found 40 species in five days as opposed to your 42 in seven days.

So you see, your trip only looks less than stellar by comparison because you choose to compare your worst days with my best. I'd say you did just fine ;)
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Thomas Bader » Tue May 29, 2012 9:46 pm

Hey guys!

very impressive indeed! Congratulations! So many snakes and so many DOR victims. We only had 2 road victims in two weeks Jordan (Shelto and a palestina viper). We also observed only 1 snake in our desert night excursions, and also few in the North.

I have just wondered about one thing, which I also wanted to remark in the Israel book, which is excellent with fantastic photos: I think there is a confusion with following Eirenis species: coronelloides, coronella and lineomaculata. To me the "coronelloides" in the book looks like a coronella and the other one (once named lineomaculata but also coronella eg in the register) is a (for me clearly a) lineomaculata. I follow "Systematics, distribution and ecology of the snakes of Jordan"
by ZUHAIR S. AMR 1 & AHMAD M. DISI which hava a very good identification key (page 192).

So if you have a picture of the head (crown), it should be quite easy to see if your coronelloides is one (which I think is quite rare compared to coronella)
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Re: Jurgen and Paul have a splendid time in Israel: The South

Postby Thomas Bader » Tue May 29, 2012 9:59 pm

Here our Eirenis coronalla from Jordan

Eirenis coronella.jpg
Eirenis coronella from Southern Jordan
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