My annual lame early Danish spring post

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krismunk
Posts: 395
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:17 am
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

My annual lame early Danish spring post

Post by krismunk »

As should be evident from the title I write this type of post every year around this time. Usually it includes a lot of snow and ice and very few herps, just an adder or two, a handful of smooth newts and perhaps a grass frog or a common toad. This year, thanks to unseasonably warm weather for most of the past three weeks there is no snow, very little ice and a slightly larger assortment of herps. As for the adders however, well... I'll get back to that ;)

Following a period of normal Danish winter weather the first heat wave (relatively speaking) arrived in the last week of February. Of course I spent as much time as possible out enjoying the weather and all the signs of the encroaching spring hoping most of all for an early adder, alas to no avail so I had to resort to photographing (poorly, I know) feathered herps and inverts.

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By February 29, I was getting frustrated by the lack of daytime reptilian succes and opted to go searching for amphibians at night instead. Agile frogs, Rana dalmatina, are the earliest breeders around here so they seemed the safe bet. En route to the ponds the first find of the evening was a stoat in its fancy winter whites. Sadly I only caught a quick glimpse of it - no pictures. Next up was the first herp of the year, an agile frog sitting in the middle of the road that got killed by the car behind me.

Happy to see a herp yet sad to see it killed I arrived at the pond where I was greeted by a surprisingly powerful chorus. Agile frogs were everywhere, on the surface and at the bottom, males calling and several trying – most in vain – to amplex females or even other males. I saw at least 100 in the small pond. Amidst them swam plenty of smooth newts, Lissotriton vulgaris. All in all it was a magical feeling, a warm, beautiful, perfect spring night with intense amphibian activity – in February!

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It soon proved showed how early in the season it was though, as my unpreparedness revealed itself. The camera ran out of batteries after just a couple of shots – all too typical a mistake for me on the first field trip of a new season :oops:

Nonetheless I moved on to the next pond looking for my final target of the evening. Once again I was greeted by a chorus with newts swimming among the calling frogs. Some of the newts were much larger though, my target, the great crested newt, Triturus cristatus. Even without a working camera this was a wonderful start to the season.

I returned the next day to get my pictures. Temperatures had dropped a little, activity likewise, yet there was still plenty to see and photograph. I'm sorry they didn't turn out better. In particular I really would have liked to be able to show decent photos of breeding male Triturus. They are truely magnificent with their crest, brightly coloured venter and flashingly streaked tail.

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A week later I returned to see if there were any eggs yet. Temperatures had dropped in the meantime and the ponds were covered by a thin crest of ice yet the frogs asnd newts could still bee seen moving about underneath – no eggs yet, though.

Aside from these nights I have only seen a couple of incidental amphibians so far this year. Here's a grass frog, Rana temporaria, and a common toad, Bufo bufo, from the neighbourhood.

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On to the reptiles...

The first Danish adders were reported on February 26 and though I should know better as my local spots (the only ones I could find the time to visit) are always rather late to wake up this obviously fueled my latent impatience. On March 2 I finally saw something. I was just about to go home when I thought I'd check one of the dens one last time. From a distance I saw a dirty serpentine shape just outside the cracks in the old wall. It was oddly skinny for a viper flattening itself to maximise its absorbance of heat from the rays of the sun but at this time of year I'll take anything with a smile. When I got closer the serpent much to my surprise revealed itself to be not an adder but an exceptionally early grass snake, Natrix natrix.

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I went for a small walk to check out the surroundings and when I came back a few minutes later the snake had moved a little.

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The next day the sky turned gray, temperatures more befitting the season returned and I gave up any hopes of seeing active reptiles. By the beginning of this past week, however, the second ”heat wave” hit us and I got back into the field. On Monday, March 12, this resulted in a bunch of viviparous lizards, Zootoca vivipara.

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Tuesday saw more viviparous lizards out yet still no adders and Wednesday I knew would almost certainly be my last chance of getting out into the field for at least the next couple of weeks. With adders popping up more or less all around the country and several ”later” species already active I was slowly getting desperate. Time was slipping through my fingers Wednesday and I almost gave up on getting out at all yet I decided to squeeze in the time for a quickie.

I'm glad I did. In just a few minutes of searching in addition to a bunch of viviparous lizards and a grass snake I finally found the first two adders, Vipera berus, of the season.

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I took the extra five minutes (I was so stressed for my herp fix that these few minutes seemed a big thing :roll: ) to just sit quietly next to one of them and observe it. Moving on I had finally found the peace of mind to accept I won't be able to run out every time the sun peeps through the clouds.

Now I'm just waiting for the sand lizards, the moor frogs, the edible frogs, the slow worms, the green toads, the...

I love spring :)
SnakeDude
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Re: My annual lame early Danish spring post

Post by SnakeDude »

coo. wish we had adders here, but i suppose the rattlers will do
BTW- nice pics
-Ian
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Dr. Dark
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Re: My annual lame early Danish spring post

Post by Dr. Dark »

Nice! (No post with adders could possibly be lame!)
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Rags
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 12:30 pm
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Re: My annual lame early Danish spring post

Post by Rags »

Interesting stuff. It's always good to see how far advanced things are in other parts of Europe.

Our own adders were supposedly showing in mid-January down on the south coast. The weather in the UK is very confused at present.

Rags
mikemike
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Re: My annual lame early Danish spring post

Post by mikemike »

Glad to see the season's upon us over that way too. Excellent post, man.
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JAMAUGHN
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Re: My annual lame early Danish spring post

Post by JAMAUGHN »

Yeah, I'm struggling to find anything lame in this post. When I was in Europe last summer, I would have gladly given a couple of ribs to see any of these. (Granted, said ribs were already broken, but that's another story...)

Great pictures and animals!
JimM
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krismunk
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 6:17 am
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Re: My annual lame early Danish spring post

Post by krismunk »

Thanks to all of you for your kind replies :)


SnakeDude:
Complaining about the lack of adders when you have multiple species of rattlesnakes is tantamount to complaining about the lack beer when offered champagne.

... And don't get me wrong, I like beer ;)


Rags:
Southern England always warms and wakes up early making the rest of us miserable in our impatience ;)

The weather here in Denmark has been severely messed up as well for quite some time though, herp activity patterns likewise. Starting at the beginning of October we had nearly four months of almost constant unseasonably warm weather. I found my last retiles of 2011 in early November, last amphibians in mid November. This is normal but a slow worm being one of these is definitely not. They are usually among the first to go underground.

The first active herps any given year are usually agile frogs, this year as well. Whereas grass frogs that might also be found out and about during warm spells in winter tend to just come out to forage a little and then return underground a few crazy male agile frogs will head straight for the ponds and start calling. This year the first individual was seen in early January. If the cold weather returns they will stay in the ponds and usually they'll be just fine under the ice. This year however, winter suddenly struck with a vengeance in the last week of January. Temperatures plummeted to a low of -23,1C at the beginning of February. After two weeks of bone cracking cold temperatures returned to normal for another two weeks before the heatwave set in with a high of 15,1C reached on February 29, the second highest Februrary temperature ever measured in Denmark. The span of 38,2C between warmest and coldest is easily the largest ever measured in February and in the top 5 for all months. At one of the ponds I found two dead frogs on the bottom. It seems likely they might have been a couple of the early risers that suffocated or froze to the death at the bottom when the pond froze solid way down into the muck.

Seven species of herps were registered as active in Denmark in February. This is quite exceptional. Until now, apart from the species I have seen others have also reported slow worms, sand lizards and moor frogs. Though I haven't heard any reports yet I am convinced alpine newts are also already active and at least a couple of other species can't be far behind.
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