Perfect day. (PICTURE HEAVY)

[Rodrigo]

The Almighty Pantheon of Caudate Gods has delivered its blessings onto this most unworthy servant!
Praised be!
Praised be!

Some of you might remember me commenting that for some reason i was never really able to find many caudates in my province at all. Well, that´s changed...Bwahahahahahahaa!
Yesterday my parents offered taking me herping again, and even though it´s not the right time of the year at all, i was hoping to at least see some tadpoles and perhaps some newt larvae, so i took a small tank and my camera and a good dollop of hope.
So i had been given directions to a couple of places and i was dying to go and check them out. Turns out one of them, which incidentally is paradise on earth, had been in my reach for 20+ years and i never knew about it. Quite literally i have passed hundreds and hundreds of times just 50m from this amazing site, never having a clue it existed. But i do now, and it´s an unbelievable place...
It also turns out it´s still breeding season!
Right away, after causing 4 large Pelophylax perezi to dive in:



The first thing i saw in the trough was a male Ichthyosaura alpestris cyreni courting a female Lissotriton helveticus, but they darted away before i could even try to get close.
So, knowing this place was in the business of making people like me happy, i set everything up and started looking. This is the trough i got very intimate with for a couple of hours:



To my total amazement, among the ridiculously huge Alytes obstetricans tadpoles i saw a Triturus marmoratus larva and started screaming like an idiot. Maaaaaaarrrrrrmmmmmmmsssssss.......



At this point i had my face so close to the surface, searching like a maniac that i realized half my chest was inside the water and i hadn´t even noticed. And then......a male marmoratuuuuus!




After this handsome fellow, i started catching Salamandra salamandra larvae and loads of L.helveticus adults and larvae. I stopped catching these after a while, because it became a bit pointless xD





While doing this a huge something touched my hand and it turned out to be the female marmoratus! A few more excited screams followed.





I really like this picture because it shows the massive size difference between the two species.

[Rodrigo]

There´s more :P

I almost fell right into the trough but i finally managed, after a long while to catch an enormous female Ichthyosaura alpestris cyreni! I was so excited to see my first female, and such a big animal too. Apart from the sheer size, i was surprised to see the coloration, so very different to what i have grown used to see in my apuanus.





I spent a long time pursuing a male, but it proved impossible to catch....I didn´t have a net and although i like to think i do well with my hands alone, this little bastard darted into the algae mats at the slightest movement. Next time, there will be no scape.

Finally, there were some very pretty advanced Salamandra salamandra larvae. I´m not sure, since i didn´t see any metamorphs or adults, but i get the feeling this might be fastuosa x bejarae intergrades.
Also, a couple of pictures of one of the maaaaaany hundreds of massive Alytes obstetricans tadpoles. This one caught my eye for some reason xD

[Rodrigo]

Moooooore :P

After the glory of this trough, we went to check another place. On the way there, i saw a rather crappy looking trough in a village and decided to check just in case. Turned out to be FULL of Lissotriton helveticus larvae and metamorphs and nothing else. There were well over 200, easy.



In the last destination, i was initially disappointed because i saw a long stone trough in the middle of the village, all new and shiny and i knew right away it was going to be empty. I then discovered that this was completely irrelevant because that wasn´t the right trough at all. A few metres below there was this awesome little place.



Unfortunately, it was already too dark, and the black loam in the bottom of the pool made it impossible to see much at all. I did see a couple of L.helveticus adults, many tadpoles, a few S.salamandra larvae, and a gorgeous S.salamandra metamorph.
These pictures are for you, John xD





When i put it back in the water it decided to chill a bit on the surface, looking AWESOME and then slowly swam towards some moss on the wall and disappeared into it. I´m not quite certain if this one was a fastuosa/bejarae intergrade or just bejarae.



And because i can´t help myself, here´s a picture of a beautiful orchid which i think might be Orchis piramidalis.



Sorry for the loooooooooooong post...and some repetitive pictures, but i had such a brilliant day i wanted to share it properly

[Rodrigo]

Couple of crappy videos xD





I took 191 pictures, so this could have been a lot worse, people...

[Kaiseric]

Extremely jealous! Nice shots Rodrigo, I'm sure you had a field day

[Karen aka mshine1217]

Great photos! I'm glad that you included the orchid, lovely.

[jane1187]

Glad you had a nice day. There's nothing better than a good day's herping. I'm quite jealous as we only have 3 species here (not counting the various localised populations of some introduced species of which none are near me) and I always get excited when i find a pond with all three so I was reading this thread and thinking... 'that's what I must be like when I'm out newting'!!!!!

Lovely photos!

P.S. I call herping 'newting', just a weird word my partner said ("you out newting again tomorrow?") and it's stuck ever since!

[Rodrigo]

It was a cracking day! I sudder to think what wonders i´ll see when i visit again in mid-breeding season....glglglglgl...

I´m glad you liked the orchid, Karen, I think every herping report should include flora too, hehe. I spotted it from the car and made my father stop by means of shouting "Orchiiiiiiid! Ooooorchiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid!!"

[Karen aka mshine1217]

"...made my father stop by means of shouting "Orchiiiiiiid! Ooooorchiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid!!" "

LOL

[Janusz Wierzbicki]

Awesome photos, especially the marmoratus-helveticus comparison.

The tadpole for sure is NOT Rana temporaria, my guess is Pelodytes punctatus.

[Jacob]

I think it is Alytes cisternasii/obstetricans, but it may be too young for certain identification.

[Rodrigo]

I didn´t see any fully metamorphosed juveniles and i admit i´m not good at identifying tadpoles, but the more advanced ones i saw (with nearly no tail left) looked very much like R.temporaria to me...even the temporal dark spot was beginning to be rather obvious. I suposse there could have been more than one species, of course.

Edit: Actually, Alytes obstetricans seems very likely (A.cisternasii doesn´t occur in that location, but obstetricans does).

[Rodrigo]

I visited the first trough again (don´t worry, it was just conveniently on the way to somewhere else, i´m not a tyrant that enslaves his parents) and as i previously said...this time...there was going to be no scape!
I did find a male I.a.cyreni :)

First things first, the tadpole was indeed missidentified, and i can now say it was definitely Alytes obstetricans. I still think Rana temporaria might have been present too, as it seems to me that at least four separate anuran species use the trough to breed. Still, the tadpole pictured previously was certainly not Rana temporaria as Yahilles pointed out (thank you for pointing out the mistake!).
Here is a picture of a more advanced juvenile that really leaves no possible doubt.



I also caught one of the adult Pelophylax perezi and it turned out to have a very lovely coloration, so here it is.



And because i think they are just too adorable, another couple of L.helveticus metamorphs.





And now the cherry on top, the male I.a.cyreni and a beautiful, light coloured female.







And a bonus one, back home.

[erikb3113]

What a gold mine! Most pools like that around here have snapping turtles in them

[jcork1]

Awesome! Great pictures

[kiathepooch]

Amazing photos!!your narrative was great too :)
I really need to go herping one day!

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