Common toad

  When you encounter a snake in the wild you have to be fast and I mean really, otherwise you'll end up with zero photos. What happened to me last weekend is exactly that, no photos. While walking on a rocky beach, I stumbled across this beautiful and a fairly large black grass snake. Just be fast and grab it! That's what I tried, and normally it would've been an easy task, but this time I had a backpack weighting some 15 kilos on my back and between me and the snake there was this tree branch. Ducking down and moving fast forward I was so sure I'll grab it. But no, my tripod, which was fastened to my backpack got stuck in the tree branch. Three seconds and I was loose, but then my shoe got stuck between the rocks... and the snake was gone. Bummer!!! I was just soooo disappointed. I was just about to move on, when I saw this large common toad. Not really what I wanted to shoot or what I was expecting to find that evening, but as the snake escaped I just had to suck it up and settle with a beautiful toad. At least they are quite slow moving and easy to handle.

  

Unexpected toad

  Because the rainy weather today, I decided to leave my camera at home. What I didn't assume was that we ended up to this tiny pictoresque lake with a few common toads in it. No problemo... use your phone. At least one image of a juicy female toad, waiting for her prince to arrive, not that it wouldn't have been nice to spend a little more time with these interesting amphibians.

Flip it!

  "Flipping" is a term used by field herpers. The word means turning stones and other stuff, even garbage, to see what lies beneath, and the idea is to find snakes, lizards and amphibians. So often you find nothing. Then there are those ant colonies invading places. Sometimes scorpions and other invertebrates, such as beetles are trying to find shelter beneath rocks and sheets of metal. In one of my favorite place there has been this sheet metal piece laying on the ground forever. From time to time I lift it up even if I know that usually there's only ants swarming around under it. During this past week I've lifted this piece of metal up quite a few times and instead of ants I've found black beetles or tiny brown centipedes. After a small walk in the forest today, I came across this same piece of junk again and of course I had to lift it. And what did I find? Two black beetles trying to escape the hard light intruding their home. I placed the cover carefully back, but something drew my attention. First I thought it's a lizard, but instead it was a tiny small newt, probably a smooth newt hiding there. A bit early, but probably this critter had already come to look if the spring has arrived. I placed it on a small rock, made a couple of frames and released it back under the metal lid. So if there is a stone or a piece of junk, flip it! You never know what you might find. Just remember to place the cover carefully back just as it was.