moloch05
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Last year was my wife's 60th birthday and I surprised her with tickets to Rome. My wife loves Italy more than any other country in Europe. She wanted to travel in September and October while the weather was still warm but the summer crowds were absent. We therefore delayed the trip until this year. We were lucky and experienced one of Italy's warmest autumns with balmy conditions until mid-October.
This was my first visit to Italy and I did not know what to expect. I normally prefer to travel in the Asian tropics or here in Australia. I found that Italy was much more interesting than I anticipated. Parts of it have really spectacular scenery and I found many butterflies, birds and a few herps. It was also an interesting feeling to walk in the hills and find ruins of old buildings that were centuries old.
We spent most of our time at three locations including Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast and finally Florence/Assisi. This report will cover my favourite part of the trip, the visit to the spectacular Amalfi Coast. Some of you will be like me and not know much of this part of the world. I will add a few "touristy" shots at the end of the post to give a feel for the place.
Here are a few shots of the Amalfi area:
The town of Amalfi was built in a narrow valley. A stream flows down the valley but then is diverted into a channel that runs beneath the buildings.
I found a trail that followed this stream for a few kilometers into the hills behind Amalfi. This was interesting since it was densely wooded. Also, there were so many ancient ruins along the way. These were always too shady for photos but here are habitat shots of the area.
This little frog was found along the stream. I don't know its identity.
... typical view along the trails:
... high in the hills above Amalfi
These areas were good for herps. One nice find was this snake that I think to be a Western Whip Snake (Hierophis viridiflavus):
Wall Lizards were confusing. I think that both Italian Wall Lizards (Podarcis sicula) and Common Wall Lizards (Podarcis muralis) were possible here. The lizards that I photographed more closely resemble shots of Italian Wall Lizards but I am not certain of the species. Does anyone out there know what should be examined to separate these species?
Rock walls like this always had flowers and were a good place to find butterflies.
I don't know the name of this plant but it was attactive to many butterflies and hawk-moths.
Hummingbird Hawk-Moths (Macroglossum stellatarum) were commonly seen as they fed from mountain wildflowers. Their abdomens had enlarged scales that looked a little like the fanned tail of a hovering hummingbird.
Swallowtail (Papilio machaon): fairly common on flowers along the rock walls.
Lesser Woodland Graylings (Hipparchia genava) were numerous in the stream valley above Amalfi. They often would lay their wings against rocks while basking in the morning.
Tree Graylings (Hipparchia statilinus) were the most common satyrinae. These would also lay their wings flat on rocks or ferns when basking.
Speckled Wood (Paragea egeria): These varied a little in colour and some were quite dark.
Wall Browns (Lasiommata megera) were common in open areas such as along rock walls. They would usually flick the upper wing upwards when I took a photo. This exposed the eyespot that was often obscured when the butterfly was resting.
Meadow Browns (Maniola jurtina) were seen a few times in the stream valley above Amalfi.
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta): fairly common but usually wary and hard to approach.
Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta): scarce with only a few seen. Their undersurface is nicely marked and reminds me of a Commander in Malaysia. In flight, they resemble a Neptis.
Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia): the male landed next to the basking female and began to display with quivering wings.
I walked from Amalfi up to the little village of Ravello a few times. It was quite a walk. One section of the trail had 700 steps so it was great exercise. Wall Lizards were numerous in this area. The view from the lookouts at Ravello was spectacular! Birds here included species like European Robins, Serin, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Jay, Raven, Greenfinch, Acrocephalus warblers, White Wagtails, Grey Wagtails and others.
... more to come later
This was my first visit to Italy and I did not know what to expect. I normally prefer to travel in the Asian tropics or here in Australia. I found that Italy was much more interesting than I anticipated. Parts of it have really spectacular scenery and I found many butterflies, birds and a few herps. It was also an interesting feeling to walk in the hills and find ruins of old buildings that were centuries old.
We spent most of our time at three locations including Cinque Terre, the Amalfi Coast and finally Florence/Assisi. This report will cover my favourite part of the trip, the visit to the spectacular Amalfi Coast. Some of you will be like me and not know much of this part of the world. I will add a few "touristy" shots at the end of the post to give a feel for the place.
Here are a few shots of the Amalfi area:
The town of Amalfi was built in a narrow valley. A stream flows down the valley but then is diverted into a channel that runs beneath the buildings.
I found a trail that followed this stream for a few kilometers into the hills behind Amalfi. This was interesting since it was densely wooded. Also, there were so many ancient ruins along the way. These were always too shady for photos but here are habitat shots of the area.
This little frog was found along the stream. I don't know its identity.
... typical view along the trails:
... high in the hills above Amalfi
These areas were good for herps. One nice find was this snake that I think to be a Western Whip Snake (Hierophis viridiflavus):
Wall Lizards were confusing. I think that both Italian Wall Lizards (Podarcis sicula) and Common Wall Lizards (Podarcis muralis) were possible here. The lizards that I photographed more closely resemble shots of Italian Wall Lizards but I am not certain of the species. Does anyone out there know what should be examined to separate these species?
Rock walls like this always had flowers and were a good place to find butterflies.
I don't know the name of this plant but it was attactive to many butterflies and hawk-moths.
Hummingbird Hawk-Moths (Macroglossum stellatarum) were commonly seen as they fed from mountain wildflowers. Their abdomens had enlarged scales that looked a little like the fanned tail of a hovering hummingbird.
Swallowtail (Papilio machaon): fairly common on flowers along the rock walls.
Lesser Woodland Graylings (Hipparchia genava) were numerous in the stream valley above Amalfi. They often would lay their wings against rocks while basking in the morning.
Tree Graylings (Hipparchia statilinus) were the most common satyrinae. These would also lay their wings flat on rocks or ferns when basking.
Speckled Wood (Paragea egeria): These varied a little in colour and some were quite dark.
Wall Browns (Lasiommata megera) were common in open areas such as along rock walls. They would usually flick the upper wing upwards when I took a photo. This exposed the eyespot that was often obscured when the butterfly was resting.
Meadow Browns (Maniola jurtina) were seen a few times in the stream valley above Amalfi.
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta): fairly common but usually wary and hard to approach.
Southern White Admiral (Limenitis reducta): scarce with only a few seen. Their undersurface is nicely marked and reminds me of a Commander in Malaysia. In flight, they resemble a Neptis.
Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia): the male landed next to the basking female and began to display with quivering wings.
I walked from Amalfi up to the little village of Ravello a few times. It was quite a walk. One section of the trail had 700 steps so it was great exercise. Wall Lizards were numerous in this area. The view from the lookouts at Ravello was spectacular! Birds here included species like European Robins, Serin, Blue Tits, Great Tits, Jay, Raven, Greenfinch, Acrocephalus warblers, White Wagtails, Grey Wagtails and others.
... more to come later
The lizards you shot are all Podarcis sicula, a taxon with an impressive and astonishing speciation and polymorphism on the whole range covered. Consider that a lot of little islands got their own ssp. The Hierophis viridiflavus there doesn't show its usual phenotype since you shot a melanistic one, once called (ssp.) carbonarius. Honestly I can't tell you much more because I'm not really skilled about local herpetofauna :-(
