Yup, i did it!

I went on a birding trip in the Danube Delta, and also did my thing around the rock piles. One thing lead to another, and one way or the other i found quite e few herp species, considering it was the 10th of january.

Oh, and my friend showed me a Bewick's Swan, and my wife pointed me another long awaited lifer, the Red-breasted Goose.

Corina and our freind were also counting all the birds and filling forms for our ornithological society.

That`s me, i mean.. habitat shot

Spur-thighed Tortoise - Testudo graeca ... carapace

European pond terrapins - Emys orbicularis rescued from a manhole

Dice snake - Natrix tessellata, frozen stiff

Sand lizard - Lacerta agilis, female, in situ. Man i love to flip stuff!

And also found this wired creature, the Racoon Dog - Nyctereutes procyonoides. Lifer! And one cool beast too, if you ask me. I mean it looks like a coon, but is part of the dog family. They were introduced from eastern Asia for the fur trade decades ago. Some escaped and formed wild sustaining populations. But they rare, nocturnal and very hard to see.And to top it all, this is one of the two canids that climbs trees and the only one that hibernates!

Not much, but we sure had lots of fun searching for, not to mention finding our first herps of 2010.

Happy herping!
Vlad