This year i decided to see as many romanian herps as i could, and untill this weekend i had 31 out of 42. Not too shabby if you ask me.:)

Giving the unusually warm weather that we are experiencing i called my buddy and asked him to drop everything and to meet me at the crack of dawn with all of his gear packed into the car, because i just had a feeling that we needed to visit Dobroudja one last time this season...

After a five hour drive we finally reached our target area, a lonley hill in the middle of nowhere.

The habitat was too good to be true, with lots of steppe vegetation and tons of rocks awaiting to be flipped. :)

The bird migration was in full swing, with many raptor species hovering above us at any given time. Here are two cool `feathered reptiles` that allowed really close approaches - the endangered corncrake and the mysterious nightjar.

Also, if you`re in to spiders, you`ll love this next one - Agriope lobata:

The only reptiles we recorded were Eastern Green Lizards, Balkan Wall Lizards, and last but definitely not least - Blotched Snake; even if it was just a juvenile`s shed skin.

It`s a very important find at least for Romania, where the species is known from less than 60 specimens, most from populations that are long gone along with their habitats...
We found a reproducing population and we`ll check on it again next season for sure.

Now my question is - can i count sauromates on my year list as lucky number 32 or would that be considered cheating?! :)

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

Vlad