By Plato Stefanopoulos
After the long summer droughts that persisted until October, we finally got a nice low pressure system our way, labeled “Athena” by meteorologists. Lots of precipitation in warm temperatures was predicted, which was an absolute godsend and would finally save Attica herping and let me see a few snakes here. This trip report will follow all of my herping during the Athena system, across 4-or-so days, from before, to during, to after the rains.
8/10
It was a nice warm, overcast afternoon in Northern Athens, and Charis Kouelis happened to be around my neighborhood, so we decided to go for a quick search at my usual neighborhood sites. He mostly wanted to photograph skinks, but alas, we did not find any. However, 4 other classic species were seen. Including the fabled Algyroides nigropunctatus (not pictured…). Unfortunately, it ended up raining heavily on us earlier than I had anticipated and we had to cut our trip short.
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| Marginated tortoise (Testudo marginata), large adult male (Picture by Charis Kouelis) |
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| Balkan frog (Pelophylax kurtmuelleri) metamorph that was found hopping around along with a dozen others (Picture by Charis Kouelis) |
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| Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus) (Picture by Charis Kouelis) |
After Charis left I still felt the urge to find some herps in these unfamiliar for me conditions, so I decided to try my luck at night cruising. I went near a watery area expecting to find toads and grass snakes. I didn’t find any grass snakes, but I did cruise up a super nice adult nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) as well as encounter explosive green toad (Bufotes viridis) activity. I stopped counting at 50 individuals and probably ended on more than 70. It was at the very least amazing to see the variability of the species in the area, as well as some massive females, one of which was the size of my fist! The temperature was excellent (19C with occasional showers, the road was warm and wet) so I made numerous passes on my roads for many hours.
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| Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) – I was extremely unprepared, with no snake hook or gloves, and had to escort the snake off the road with my container |
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| Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) – it was a very placid individual that cooperated excellently for photos |
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| Green toad (Bufotes viridis) large female, with a reddish coloration |
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| Green toad (Bufotes viridis) huge adult female with high white, the largest I have ever seen |
I made a short, mostly fruitless morning/midday herp session with Christos Kotselis the next day, with only 3 species seen (H. turcicus, Ablepharus kitaibelii, Testudo marginata).
10/10
Me and Charis finally organized a morning-afternoon session outside of Metro-Athens and I drove us to my best Platyceps najadum site in Attica, and we still had skinks in mind, many of which call the area home. The session sadly wasn’t really productive despite the seemingly phenomenal conditions, however, I did manage to turn up all of 3 species there.
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| Ocellated skink (Chalcides ocellatus) |
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| Ocellated skink (Chalcides ocellatus) (Picture by Charis Kouelis) |
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| Green toad (Bufotes viridis) beautiful large adult female in habitat, found under a giant piece of garbage |
While we were about to visit another site, we got absolutely drenched by rain. It subsided relatively quickly and we were back on the hunt. Hyla arborea were heard calling but not observed. After running out of places to herp there, we went on a fruitless search for herps at Mt. Pentelikon and my neighborhood, where we only saw Balkan frogs and house geckos.
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| River crab Potamon fluviatile in habitat |
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| Portrait of a beautiful large adult house gecko (Picture by Charis Kouelis) |
After I returned Charis home I was left largely unsatisfied so I made an almost 1hr drive to some wetland areas for some night cruising. The outing was very fun and successful and I rescued many great herps from the road.
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| This dice snake (Natrix tessellata) was performing a spectacular cobra imitation before I caught it to help it cross the road |
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| Juvenile grass snake (Natrix natrix) rescued from the road |
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| One of several European tree frogs (Hyla arborea), this one is a juvenile |
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| Stunning juvenile “Hellenic” pond terrapin (Emys orbicularis hellenica) that was drinking copious amounts of water, it had likely just emerged from aestivation |
11/10
The weather was still amazing so I figured I should try my luck at day cruising and looking under garbage. Both methods were essentially complete failures, with only a single road-killed toad (B. bufo) and juvenile Ablepharus found by each method respectively. I also cruised and flipped for situl…. I mean the “s-word”, to no avail, with only two hatchling T. marginata found as compensation. Road cruising was amazing when night first fell, but the weather cooled off fast and snake activity seemingly ceased. Apart from some amazing amphibians, I cruised a super nice adult grass snake in some absolutely comedic circumstances. I’ve really grown to love road cruising lately and after my first few snakes seen that way, I am looking forward to more!
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| Testudo marginata fresh hatchling |
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| Common toad (Bufo bufo) |
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| European tree frog (Hyla arborea) |
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| The sweetest grass snake (Natrix natrix) |
Marginated tortoise (Testudo marginata)
Dalmatian algyroides (Algyroides nigropunctatus)
Mediterranean house gecko (Hemidactylus turcicus)
Green toad (Bufotes viridis)
Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes)
Ocellated skink (Chalcides ocellatus)
Snake-eyed skink (Ablepharus kitaibelii)
Dice snake (Natrix tessellata)
Common toad (Bufo bufo)
European tree frog (Hyla arborea)