After reading so many fantastic reports with amazing pictures here, I feel a bit guilty that I'm always too busy and/or lazy to react or post some pictures myself.
So time for some of my finds of this spring:
I started the season with monitoring a population of Fire Salamanders close to my home and I continued with my quest to find Common Spadefoot in Belgium.
The beginning of April was quite succesful as we found record breaking numbers of salamanders. Previous years we never found more than 7 individuals at once but the first big rains of the year triggered a peak in activity and I found 34 animals in one night. A great result for what is thought to be a small population in a very big forest due to a lack of suitable breeding water.
- Fire Salamander (Salamandra salamandra) male
- female
The main pond that is used to deposit larvae is being used also by hundreds of Common Frogs (Rana temporaria) which results in conflicts. Every year female salamanders are being drowned by overexcited male frogs.
I found 27 salamanders in and around the pond, 3 of them where being harassed by frogs, so the majority escaped this time, like this female.
A few days later I drove a long way to a small pond to search for Common Spadefoot which is almost extinct in Belgium. I heard them before, calling from under water but never saw an animal in the wild. This year I was determined to find one. And with succes. I searched at night, carefully wading through the water and this time I managed to see 3 individuals. I could scoop one out of the water with my hand to make some pictures.
- Common Spadefoot (Pelobates fuscus) male
I don't want to count the hours that I searched for this species over the last years, so this made me extremely happy!!!
Another species very high on my wishlist because you can find it very close to Belgium in the north of France, was the Parsley Frog. Our herping team from Hyla planned a trip on the 14th of April, so I eagerly joined them. At the first search site we heard one male calling but we couldn't spot him so we went to a second more promissing site. There we easily found several individuals, together with Midwife Toad and Natterjack. In the surroundings we found Viviparous Lizard and Common Wall Lizard.
- Parsley Frog (Pelodytes punctatus)
- Midwife Toad (Alytes obstetricans)
- I love those bulgy eyes!
- Pelodytes eggs
After that we still had some time left and decided to go for an adder search!!! Robert and I already had gone searching for adders at the end of March, but we had failed to find one. So we almost started to doubt our capabilities. Luckily we both found a male viper. Yes, we still got it! Mine was a beauty in disguise with his milky eyes. But Robert had found a freshly shed one. What a nice snake!
- Adder (Vipera berus)
The end of April - beginning of May was the biggest highlight of this year's spring: The big trip to the north west of Spain. But that is something for a different post (maybe). You have already seen the reports of Jeroen, Bobby and GeeJay. Great reports, I couldn't do it better myself. A rainy but nevertheless succesful and very amusing holiday!
Back in Belgium I had little time to go out herping except for a night of inventorying Midwife Toads. Only counting animals by the calls, so no pics.
But at the end of May, me and my girlfriend had some vacations. We decided to stay at home with our two small kids and make a lot of day trips. Between visiting the zoo and numerous playgrounds, I managed to squeeze in some family herping. I didn't set my goals too high. I wanted to see the last species in Belgium I never saw before in the wild: American Bull Frog. Sad enough there are some healthy populations of this species in Belgium.
We went to a site known for the species and made a nice afternoon hike. I saw one tiny juvenile jumping into a big muddy puddle. I could only determine it because it made that typical squeaking sound. But no pictures.
We did came across something we don't see upclose everyday: Probably a greater white toothed shrew (Crocidura russula). I don't know much about shrews. It seemed to be a very young animal, freshly kicked out of the nest.
In between the family things I also took an afternoon to go to inventorize some ponds for Pelobates larvae together with a friend. We went to 5 locations where at least in the last 8 years the species was present. Sad enough we only could find larvae in the same pond where I found the adults. But at some locations there are bigger ponds so hopefully we just missed them there. But one location we have given up on, the groundwater table dropped too much and it proved impossible to restore the pond there.
When we were counting larvae a thunderstorm was approaching. To our surprise there were still adults in the pond. We could hear 4 males calling, triggered by the approaching storm. They were hidden deep between the vegetation so we didn't see them.
- Spadefoot larva
Another goal of mine was to find the one species of herp I didn't see yet in Belgium but does occur here: Yellow-bellied Toad. It has been more or less extinct, but over the past years there were introductions and one population just crossed the border with France. So that was our destination for a mini family herping trip.
We went for two days to the Ardennes. It were the two hottest days of the year so far. First stop was a known site for adder. I didn't expect to find one because we arrived around noon and temperatures were already well above 25°C. But there is also a nice population of Pool Frogs in some nice ponds.
- Waiting for the girls. Pool Frogs (Pelophylax lessonae)
- Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis)
- Viviparous lizard (Zootoca vivipara) with a ladybird
- juvenile
We cooled off next to a river at early noon and drove on to the location with yellow-bellies. Numerous ponds have been made here to give a lot of opportunities to the species. I had to search long and hard to spot just one animal in the middle of a small pond covered with algae. I only could make one picture
- Yellow-bellied Toad (Bombina variegata)
But that was made up for by the next find: a male Grass Snake that just had been feasting on Common Frog larvae and Salamandra larvae.
- Grass Snake (Natrix natrix)
We spent the night at a bed and breakfast. The owner made us a nice meal accomponied with delicious beer and he convinced me to join him in a "degustation du rhum". Quite drunk he showed me a water basin in the town and some ponds in the middle of the night. We saw a lot of Alpine Newt and Common Newts and one lonely Edible Frog. Next day came to a slow start. High temperatures and a tiny hangover resulted in just a nice walk in the surroundings without intensive herping. We saw a lot of Alpine Newts in a big tire track.
- Alpine Newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris)
In the afternoon we went to a small village where I know two good snake spots. One for Smooth Snake, but this slope was steeper than I remembered and too dangerous to visit with the children. So instead we focussed on Paco's hobby: throwing stones into the river! To finish we went to the other spot where adders live! 5 p.m., 27°C so we just made a walk to see how the habitat was looking nowadays without expecting to see anything. When I turned round a corner I saw a strange stick in the middle of the road end one end was moving slightly: A big female viper completely streched out, flattened on the surface, baking in the sun. I think she had recently fed because she felt quite heavy. I saw this behaviour one time before with a smaller female around noon on a hot autumn day. Unexpected but a very nice bonus, this really made the trip.
- Adder
It was the first real herping trip for Ben, 9 months old. And the litte rat loved it!
At the last day of our vacations we wanted to make another walk in nature, so I directed the family to a different location for Bull Frogs! At the first pond I looked in, I couldn't believe my eyes: the biggest tadpoles I ever saw. You read about it and see pictures but their size still surprised me.
- American Bull Frog larvae
- American Bull Frog (Lithobates catesbeianus) male
- female
- juvenile
To finish: I went to search adders again last Sunday together with a friend. This time in the north of Belgium. Again we were a bit late in the field due to circumstances. So we had some trouble to find anything other than Viviparous lizard, Pool- and Edible Frog. When in the early afternoon it became cloudier, some juvenile adders appeared. We found 4 but one escaped. They all look quite similar but I find them real beauties.
- Vipera berus
- same
- number 2
- number 3
- same
Another bonus that day: Luckily Thomas sometimes looks up.
- juvenile Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)
Hope you enjoyed it,
Bert
