The pictures was taken: 27/03-2012
This day the weather was sunny and i had been longing for a field trip for a long time; but I was very tired from yesterday’s work, so I did
not feel like hiking through kilometers of habitat. Instead I chose to go into stealth mode in the reed beds at Hov Vig (the local bird
sanctuary). It was very nice to sit down the same place without having any particular goals for my twitching that day. Instead of searching
I just shot whatever animals that came by. I saw (approx. 20+) Pelophylax kl. Esculentus, various birds and plenty Natrix natrix specimens,
(approx. 15-20), and what a sight! The mating season had started - way earlier than I expected.
I haven’t encountered any other grass snake mating episodes in 2012, only this one so far. But I have heard of others in Denmark, (01/04
I saw N. natrix mating documentation on facebook from another hobby herpetologist). No matter what; it’s early to find grass snakes
mating in March.
PS: Today I used my 55–200mm zoom lens. Normally I feel constricted when I use it, (I can’t get any nearer than 1.5 meters), but
today I had no need for close-up shots. I did not want to disturb the snakes, so a distance of approx. 3 meters was appropriate. The
weather was calm; almost no wind with temperatures about 9° Celsius, the clock was almost 12:00am.
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The first Natrix natrix i encountered, it was lying on a rod in the reed beds
Mating action! In March, thats the spirit!
The males fought to get the best position
Grass snakes mating dosen't seem to notice much, but anyway they just had to check what i was doing
Closeup of the female.
The lucky male.
Another female with her two suitors.
A male struggles to get ahead
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Various tail shots
More can be read here: http://herp-spot.weebly.com/270312.html
