Yahilles
New member
- Joined
- May 24, 2007
- Messages
- 529
- Reaction score
- 22
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- Age
- 30
- Location
- Poznań, Poland
- Country
- Poland
- Display Name
- Janusz Wierzbicki
This weekend we went to a short trip (short in lasting, long in travelling to the place...) to Świętokrzyskie - in direct translation it should sound like "Holy Cross' Mountains", which are in my opinion not really a mountain range as their highest peak is only 600 metres above sea level. Anyway, we had great time watching local flora and fauna, as we managed to find all the species of caudates from the area, which included Triturus cristatus, Ichthyosaura alpestris alpestris and Lissotriton vulgaris vulgaris (Lissotriton montandoni and Salamandra salamandra do not live in this region).
Our first spot was a long ditch next to a railroad, which contained a lot of L. vulgaris and Bufo bufo tadpoles. It was a shallow one, i don't think it exceeded 30 cm in deepest place.
Biotope:
Inhabitants:
A good comparison of a great male which was probably at his "peak performance", a probably younger companion and a female:
We also met a beautiful subadult specimen of our common toad, Bufo bufo:
Then we headed to a hidden pond, inhabited by all three species, but our nettings indicated that it was dominated by the largest, crested newts. Green frogs (Rana esculenta complex) were calling all the time while we took pics of newts in the phototank. Dragonfly nymphs were also abundant among the leaves we netted out.
We later visited a larger pond with banks overgrown with Sphagnum moss, where year ago (in April) we observed commo toad breeding. This time it was full of tadpoles and also young green frogs. Two interesting plants grew among the Sphagnum: Hippurus vulgaris and a carnivorous plant, Drosera rotundifolia.
There was a strange tendency in newt habitats. While the earlier pond was inhabited by all species (mostly cristatus), the muddy pools in the road contained Ichthyosaura alpestris, and the ditch near the railway was inhabited only by vulgaris.
I hope you enjoyed this little story. Cheers!
Our first spot was a long ditch next to a railroad, which contained a lot of L. vulgaris and Bufo bufo tadpoles. It was a shallow one, i don't think it exceeded 30 cm in deepest place.
Biotope:
Inhabitants:
A good comparison of a great male which was probably at his "peak performance", a probably younger companion and a female:
We also met a beautiful subadult specimen of our common toad, Bufo bufo:
Then we headed to a hidden pond, inhabited by all three species, but our nettings indicated that it was dominated by the largest, crested newts. Green frogs (Rana esculenta complex) were calling all the time while we took pics of newts in the phototank. Dragonfly nymphs were also abundant among the leaves we netted out.
We later visited a larger pond with banks overgrown with Sphagnum moss, where year ago (in April) we observed commo toad breeding. This time it was full of tadpoles and also young green frogs. Two interesting plants grew among the Sphagnum: Hippurus vulgaris and a carnivorous plant, Drosera rotundifolia.
There was a strange tendency in newt habitats. While the earlier pond was inhabited by all species (mostly cristatus), the muddy pools in the road contained Ichthyosaura alpestris, and the ditch near the railway was inhabited only by vulgaris.
I hope you enjoyed this little story. Cheers!
