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Hi,
last weekend a friend of mine and I have been invited to join some hungarian friends searching for meadow vipers in the Puszta, the pannonian steppe.
After a few hours in the train, we arrived in the south of Budapest.
The climate was very hot (around 30°C at noon) and very dry in the open grasslands. In the woods, there were some tiny and one bigger ponds, it was more humid than in the meadows.
In the evening rain started from time to time and it became more windy and cooler. The second day was the same, little rain, very cloudy and windy.



A varied landscape, with many different habitats...


european green lizard male, Lacerta viridis




Some parts of the area had been destroyed by a fire a few months ago.


Lacerta viridis female


On the sandy hills we saw lots of balkan wall lizards, Podarcis tauricus




Quite common in the sandy areas, an antlion


The big pond...


...where we found grass snakes and fire-bellied toads Bombina bombina.


Back on the meadow, lots of lizards again...
L. viridis


sand lizard female, Lacerta agilis


Saga pedo


Cheiracanthium erraticum


In the middle of the plains, european pond turtle Emys orbicularis quite far away from the ponds...


...obviously before laying her eggs.


After some hours of searching we were delighted to find this little Viper
Vipera ursinii rakosiensis










Grass snake Natrix natrix (persa?) in the grassland.


At night we saw some common spadefoots Pelobates fuscus




Another place, a little to the north:
Lacerta viridis male


And some more arthropodes...
jumping spider, Philaeus chrysops



spider-hole


Geolycosa vultuosa





Lucanus cervus


I really enjoyed the trip and I am grateful, that I could see one of those beautiful and rare vipers in their natural environment.


regards,
Markus

Thanks for sharing!
Great report and pictures

Mario

Enjoyed that! Would love to do a similar trip one day...

Congrats!!

Nice shots!!

Nice Emys behaviour photos, and the little sand lizard looks very good too! Well done

Markus Oulehla wrote:last weekend a friend of mine and I have been invited to join some hungarian friends
searching for meadow vipers in the Puszta, the pannonian steppe.
After a few hours in the train, we arrived in the south of Budapest.

Were you in one of the already known localities, or searching for a new one?

Thx for the nice feedback on my pics
Yeah, it was a great experience and I hope to get the chance to go there again in the future!
I was impressed by the number of lizards that ran around our feet and their beautiful coloration this time of year and I fell in love with the ursinii of course

@Berislav Horvatic:
It was an already known locality in the Kiskunság national park, but not accessible for everyone, I think?!


And here are some additional pictures
Lacerta agilis female



the little viper






Pelobates fuscus




regards
Markus

Markus Oulehla wrote:It was an already known locality in the Kiskunság national park, but not accessible for everyone, I think?!

No, it isn't, or rather shouldn't be - one has to be INVITED, or at least ADMITTED. I was there
myself in October 2010 as a member of the Croatian Vipera ursinii conservation team. We
paid a collective visit to the Centre as their guests.
I just wondered whether you were searching for NEW localities, because I learned from Halpern
Balint that Hungary has NOT been as thoroughly searched as one usually imagines. There's a lot
of fieldwork left.

Berislav Horvatic wrote:I just wondered whether you were searching for NEW localities, because I learned from Halpern
Balint that Hungary has NOT been as thoroughly searched as one usually imagines. There's a lot
of fieldwork left.

Yes, thats what our hosts told us, too!
And I can imagine how hard it is to get an overview about size and spreading of a population. As these snakes are so shy, it's difficult to define where they DON'T occur, just because one don't see any...
We searched on a place where vipers where already found in the past, but one part of the group went on to some "unknown meadows" as well...

regards
Markus

Great post!