Whenever I come to carinthia I spend some time in the field.
I like to see the same species as around vienna in different habitats and I really like herping for Vipera ammodytes, which I don't find in my area
My first short-trip this year was in may, I met a friend of mine at Villach and we drove to some dice snake-spots at the river "Gail".
It was cool in the morning and the sky was quite cloudy, but when the sun came through it became warm, so good conditions and what a result...
In the morning 2 juvenile aesculapian snakes, both well fed...
A little later we found the first dice snakes, Natrix tessellata
32 individuals in about 2 hours ( ~2/3 of them females...)
We also saw lots of green lizards, Lacerta viridis, both sex, in all sizes...
So that was an outstanding day, I've been to this spot some times during the last summers, always seen some specimes but never that much!!!
A week ago a was in Carinthia again. This time we wanted to see some long-nosed vipers. I really like the light grey colored ammodytes from carinthia, much nicer than all the red and yellow local variants, but thats just my opinion
The wheather was quite hot, so we reached the scree sclopes in the later morning and spoted the first vipers (all females) basking in the sun
Second, darker female, just a few meters further...
After we found the first vipers basking in the sun, it became hotter so we had a closer look at the shady places...
Carinthia is a great place for herping, various species and very diverse habitats, so absolutely worth visiting...
regards
