Some days in Ticino

[Dominik Hauser]

Just came back of 4 days mixed "herping holidays" with my girlfriend. I got one day for real herping, but "normal" hiking trips into the mountains turned out to be also quite good. Main target was of course to see some Asp Vipers.
On the way down we stopped at mesocco castle to enjoy the view into the misox valley, the first lizards we found were wall lizards and green lizards of which we found a lot the next days...

Podarcis muralis male at mesocco castle

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Lacerta billineata female at mesocco castle

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Second day we made a trip on one of the mountains near Cannobio with a nice view over Lago Maggiore. We walked up on small streets, were I found a dead juvenile Aesculap, and lots of bilineatas on the path. After a short break on the top of the mountain we went back down. At a pond we stopped and I decided to search around a little bit, and really found a nice young Vipera aspis laying between some bushes although it was really hot already.

DOR Aesculap Snake

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Vipera aspis atra

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The third day we hiked up another moutain near Cannobio, this time nearly all the time in a marron forest. Between some lost stone houses we made a break and I made some bilineata and muralis shots again

Salamandra salamandra on the wet path

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Lacerta bilineata male

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The last day finally was my "herping day" , we hiked up a Valley in the Swizz part of Ticino which looked good to me. When we reached a nice looking area, I left my girlfriend on a river and went searching. After some minutes I spotted my first Asp viper, a big dark coloured atra.

Vipera aspis atra about 70 cm

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Another black Viper, this time a young one followed after some minutes, sadly no good picture because between some bushes.
On the way back I found 3 other lighter Vipers what was really enough so I went back and we went down the valley again. We also found some slow worms, a dead Coronella and a young one in a wall near a street at this day.

Habitat of Vipera aspis atra

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third Asp viper

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Another one

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And another atra

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DOR Coronella austriaca on a mountain street

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Young Coronella in a wall

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Slow worm

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So it went out to be a good holiday for both, sadly my search for Vipera aspis francisciredi on the way home wasn´t succesful, maybe it was already to hot when we arrived at 11:00 in this valley. All the Viper pics are in situ.

Regards
Dominik

[Gerald Ochsenhofer]

Really nice pics! The coloration of coronella is very interesting..

[Jürgen Gebhart]

Very, very cool! Congrats!
The first Asp is an eyecatcher!!

Maybe I change my mind and go back to Ticino for a one Day Trip.

[Dominik Hauser]

Hi,

@Gerald I haven´t seen so much Coronella till now, but also wondered about the light colouration of the young one, sadly it was gone very fast into a brick in the wall before I made better pics.
@Jürgen you really have to, its such a nice area, sometimes difficult to find what you are searching and weather unpredictabel but thats the charm of this region . I will go for one or two short trips by motorbike this year for sure. Its only 300 km from me but I always need about 6-9 hours because I make so many stops in rhine valley, driving over San Bernardino pass, sit in traffic..., so I think I can never be there in the morning if I make a daytrip like you .

[Grégoire Meier]

Fine observations, especially the dark viper!

[Jürgen Gebhart]

@Jürgen I think I can never be there in the morning if I make a daytrip like you .

Most of the time when I was in Ticino, I was always there in the right time (after a four hours drive) on the right place and found nothing.
I hate Ticino!

[Grégoire Meier]

I hate Ticino!

[Dominik Hauser]

@Gregoire I tried to load up the image of the other black one but it doesn´t work, I think I´ll try again later. It looks nearly like the other dark one, but with less pattern and some lateral/ventral blueish skales, was of course from the same population.
You lucky Guy living there all the year .

Regards Dom