First Herps of 2012

[Mario Schweiger]

Saturday early afternoon, some coleguages (Hannes Hill, Ulrich Schulte etc.) found a Vipera berus male near Gersfeld/Rhön, Germany. It was full in shedding stage.
Here they are still not awake - at least up to wednesday last week. Will check tomorrow again

Mario

[Sandra Panienka]

Very cool to see how this topic is developing. I need to get some pics up soon. I found my first Hyla arborea on Thursday while looking for R. arvalis. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any snakes yet.

[Tomas Klacek]

Great shots guys, I especially love those mating balls of grass snakes!

This week I saw a few Z. vivipara, but nothing else. Still waiting for first berus, friends said they are already out in the south of republic.

berus & zootoca habitat, (crappy mobile) photo from this weekend. At least It's finally melting

[Kristian Munkholm]

Found my first edible frog of the year today. That makes it ten species so far. I'm hoping for #11 - a sand lizard - tomorrow, might go out tomorrow evening for green toads as well...

[Bobby Bok]

Sunday night some calling Pelobates fuscus, several Rana arvalis (not blue) and Rana temporaria. Also Triturus cristatus, Lissotriton vulgaris and Bufo bufo. The next day I went with Gertjan Verspui, Tim Leerschool and Sjuul Verhaegh to some places to look for my least favorite animals. We found several Zootoca vivipara, 12 Vipera berus (2 melanistic, very rare in the Netherlands), 2 Natrix natrix and a very early Elaphe schrenckii.

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

Elaphe schrenckii

?? sorry but I dont understand, this snake is from east Asia, China etc... ???

[Guillaume Gomard]

It has been introduced in Netherlands and apparently the population is growing each year...

[Pierre-Yves Vaucher]

?? and no problem with local snakes or birds or... local fauna ??
Ok I will introduce Bitis gabonica next week in Geneva's woods

[Jeroen Speybroeck]

See also http://fieldherping.eu/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=912

[Daniel Kane]

Great photos Bobby, ; your Elaphe looks almost like a Zamenis lineatus!