Bird watchers are reliable snake experts. Not. 

Hi Tony,
You can e-mail me at phidia@ntlworld.com and I'll send you an up to date checklist. As Jeroen comments, birdwatchers sightings are not to be relied upon anymore than I would rely on my own identification of many of the birds on Lesvos. The only viper on Lesvos is the Ottoman Viper. Disregard any report lists by birders including species such as Balkan Whip snake, Nose-horned Viper, etc etc. Nevertheless, bird reports such as those on Surfbird etc can be very useful for possible reptile localities. 

Yeh don't believe what most people tell you regarding species. In May I am going to Limnos, just north of Lesbos where we are hoping to validate Ilias Strachinis's sightings of V.ammodytes from many years ago. But this island although close to Lesvos is not geographically linked.

A word of warning, adult xanthina on Lesvos can be huge. Like the 120cm specimen I wrestled last October, needless the say the snake got me to leave it in peace very quickly as I didn't even get a photo.
Matt 

Thanks for your help Guys
I thought I best ask ammodytes do appear to be close to Lesvos on the map but as you have said not on it.
Matt for most of the time I will be working alone and on foot within an 8 mile radius so if I see a meter long Ottoman I will leave it be it’s not worth the risk.
Thank you for your help David I will e-mail you :-)



Tony
 

Tony,
There are of course tools to safely handle larger venomous snakes - I believe Vlad a.o. posted something about that somewhere here earlier...
g's & good luck,
J. 

Well it depends how badly you want a photo :-)

Of course you are more likely to see smaller ones than this, and it is possible to catch them safely as many members on here do without any problem at all. The circumstance with the animal I saw was difficult to begin with, not expecting a large ottoman viper on the last day after what was one of my most unsuccessful trips to date.

At first I thought it was a big H.nummifer rather than an xanthina because of the length of the body.

Take a hook of some kind with you and I'm sure it will be okay, and enjoy Lesvos. The north Aegean islands are known for their much larger vipers than elsewhere.

Matt 

Its funny you should mention Vlad and his snake hook I’ve just upgraded to the Vlad Cioflec pro snake hook and it arrived today ;-)

Congratulations on the new snakehook Tony! It looks awsome. Now give it a pet name and get out there and start flipping. :)