Hi everyone
As I wrote in my introduction here comes my french trip with from the 16th to the 23th of June. Because our trips from the last few years mostly tended to the eastern direction (Croatia, Italy or Greece) we were even more excited for this one here. Our journey started in the "Alpes maritimes" near Grasse. We visited there a spot for V.ursini on about 1500m. Afterwards we continued in western direction and had a quick stop at Gonfaron visiting the "village des tortues". Our last destination was another spot for V. ursini in the mountains of Vaucluse. During the journey of several hundred kilometres we used to make stops wherever we found locations looking like hotspots for herps.
I hope you enjoy it.
Bests,
Noah
Our first stop was near Sisteron were found a few species right next to a car parking.
Also interesting was a (for us) new Euscorpius species. I think it should be Euscorpius flavicauda but I'm no expert in scorpions. So please correct me if someone doesn't agree.
The visit of the ursini habitat was a pleasure even without finding an ursini. Early in the morning while we were observing the ground suddenly eight griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) were circling above us. Unfortunately we had only a 200mm lens with us.
We also found some P.muralis and a few L.bilineata. The highlight of this place were western three-toed skinks (Chalcides striatus) which were quite numerous around a few bushes.
Still between 1300 and 1400m we found a basking Vipera aspis.
But as soon as we lost some hight the temperature increased immediately. In the lowlands (up to 500m) we had everyday from 10.30 to 18.30 about 30° degrees. As you all know this makes herping more difficult. After we were hiking for some hours in a stunning area finding only one Aesculapean snake who suffered heat at a half-shaded place we decided to look for Emys, Natrix natrix and maura in a nature reservate at a lake. We were happy find find all three species but unfortunately only managed to take pictures of an Emys orbicularis which was found diving in low and clear water. Some more pond turtles were found at a small river in the surroundings of Brignoles.
At night we heard many mediterrean tree frogs (Hyla meridionalis) sitting in the trees along a river. Even when we stood a meter away from the singers we couldn't see any of them ...
To our surprise / pleasure a juvenile smooth snake (Coronella girondica) "saved" the night.
After we found several moltings of the Montpellier snake and a quick view of one watching us from a gap of a stone wall we finally found to females under a flat stone.
In the Vaucluse Mountains we enjoyed great weather of 25°degrees, a few clouds and always a bit of sun. We saw one snake which probably was an V.ursini fleeing in a Juniperus bush. After that we only found some muralis and rarely a bilineata. So people begin taking pictures of nice orchids... :p