Italy, Croatia July 2008


The route
The route

Summer holidays 2008 to France, Switserland, Italy & Croatia

 

© All CONTENT & PHOTOGRAPHS G.J. VERSPUI 2013 ©

Unless stated otherwise.

 

 

 

 

 

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France & Switserland

This summer we wanted to continue where we stopped last year.

We started in the Vosges mountains in France, we spend 2 days here and went south in the direction of Switserland, here I hoped to have the chance to look for melanistic Asp Vipers again, last year the weather was very bad twice when we came trough the region, this year it was not very different, so Ticino was reached sooner then expected.

 

We stayed in a beautiful valley and the weather was very good, maybe a little too hot for Asp Vipers, last year I found at least 5 of them here, but now not even one.

 

Common Wall Lizards and Western Green Lizards were seen many times.

 

 

Italy

From Ticino we went into Italy, we took some great mountain roads and visited some famous lakes in that area, close to Bolzano we stayed a bit longer, we found a campsite next to Lago di Caldaro.

 

The lake was great for swimming and I did some looking around on the slopes of the mountains around us, Common Toads, Pool Frogs, Common Wall Lizards, Western Green Lizards, Slow Worms, Grass Snakes, Aesculapian Snake and many Asp Vipers (ssp francisciredi) were found.

 

We stayed here 4 days, we continued our trip, drove trough the Dolimites and the Julian Alps before we reached Croatia.

Croatia

In Croatia we followed the Istrian coast, stayed at a couple of campsites and enjoyed the good weather, the 'beaches' and the always escaping Western Whip Snakes...

Our last stop in Croatia was the island Krk, here our campervan was as good as on the beach, in the early and late afternoon hours I looked for reptiles, a Balkan Green Lizard and a Balkan Whip Snake escaped from me and my camera.. On the road I saw my first 3 Cat Snakes, but they were dead, so it was not what I hoped..

Observed Species

 

 

1.  Slow Worm - Anguis fragilis

2.  Common Toad - Bufo bufo

3.  Grass Frog - Rana temporaria

4.  Pool Frog - Pelophylax lessonae 

5.  Western Green Lizard - Lacerta bilineata

6.  Balkan Green Lizard - Lacerta trilineata  

7.  Viviparous Lizard - Zootoca vivipara

8.  Grass Snake - Natrix natrix

9.  Common Wall Lizard - Podarcis muralis

10. Western Whip Snake - Hierophis viridiflavus

11. Balkan Whip Snake - Hierophis gemonensis

 -- . Cat Snake - Telescopus fallax (dead)

12. Asp Viper - Vipera aspis francisciredi

13. Aesculapian Snake - Zamenis longissimus