Weekend trip to the escarpment

Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby froot » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:25 am

This last weekend Mitton, Biosmith, Mongoose and myself spent some time in the Nelspruit region for a spot of herping. We managed a list of 22 species, most of which were new additions to my species list. All together a fantastic weekend.
Let me add that all animals were caught, photographed and released where they were found immediately afterwards, nothing was bagged.

Firstly some habitat shots:

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Snakes:

Slug eater (Duberria lutrix)
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Spotted skaapsteker (psammophylax rhombeatus)
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Very shy Typhlops bibronii
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Berg adder (Bitis atropos)
Male:
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Female:
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Lizards:

Ancontias I forgettis
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Scelotes mirus
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Platysaurus I forgettis
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Pachydactylus vansonii
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Nucras lalandii
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Homopholis wahlbergii
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Cordylus vittifer
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Inverts:

Opistophthalmus sp.
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Arb spider
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Hope you enjoyed.
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby Fooble » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:28 am

Awesome pictures froot,

That P.vansoni is a stunner!
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby Mitton » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:35 am

It was a great trip, thanks guys.
Some really nice finds.

Some of the shots I got.
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby D@RRYL » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:38 am

WOW! Awesome pictures and beautilful finds !
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby alexander » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:43 am

Great photos, and amazing finds.
That Platysaurus looks wierd to me though, could it be Pseudocordylus? The low angle makes it difficult to tell.

And how many atropos did you find?!!
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby Hustler » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:52 am

Great photos Froot and Mitton! That landscape looks absolutely amazing! The finds, even more amazing.
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby armata » Tue Oct 26, 2010 9:54 am

Very nice. Seems you hit a good atropos spot. You can PM me re details if you wish.

Johan Marais is very interested in Scelotes right now, so maybe you should get in touch; he would like that photo too for his forthcoming book.

Goose, your taste in shorts, ah well nuff said!
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby TH » Tue Oct 26, 2010 10:34 am

Wow, some great finds there and some excellent photographs. I'm very jealous of the things you found with being stuck down in the Cape and not getting to this part of the world all that often in recent times. I must make a plan at some stage to get back there and hopefully call on some of you to join me for some local herping...

As to the actual photography, I'm always interested to learn more about this and attempt to improve my own skills along the way. What camera setup are you using (body and lens) and what settings are you using when doing this macro photography of reptiles in the wild?
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby Rishaad » Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:12 pm

Very very nice guys. Looks like you guys had an awesome weekend. Well done.
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby froot » Tue Oct 26, 2010 12:27 pm

Thanks for the comments.

Alexander you could be right, in fact I think you are. I'm still a little new to lizards but slowly getting there. We found 4 adult atropos and 1 juvinile.

TH I used a Nikon D200 and was surrounded by Canon people, probably a common experience for many Nikon users. I used a 105mm VR macro and a 17-55mm F2.8 lens. Some of the shots were taken with a flash and others not. I perefer shooting in daylight without a flash because the colour seems to be far superior. Sometimes I really feel that a flash is a device that is designed to parasitically attach itself to your camera and destroy your photos. The down side to that is lower shutter speeds so tongue flicks come out blurred. Some sort of dead rest would definitely help too.

Cool shots there Mitton.
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby Wolf777 » Tue Oct 26, 2010 1:55 pm

Wow a dream trip for me, looks like you guys had loads of fun, awesome pics all round.
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby Bushviper » Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:01 pm

Nice. Happy to see nothing was pickled either.

Those Nucras remind me of small Varanus. Have not seen one in ages.

Nice gun metal colour on the Duberria as well.
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby bradmiller » Tue Oct 26, 2010 2:27 pm

Not bad for 1 weekend - lots of nice finds. :D
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby BOOGY » Wed Oct 27, 2010 1:54 am

And once again I had to mis out. Sorry guys. Moving is hard work and I just had no chance of getting out of it. From now on I should have more time on my hands and be able to join again. Goose youll have to let me know the spot for the bergies. There should be some around my new possie. Froot and mitton You should come down again sometime,would have been great meeting yous!
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Re: Weekend trip to the escarpment

Postby nvlooi » Wed Oct 27, 2010 5:32 pm

@ FROOT - This pics make me think of B. xeropaga...

http://www.sareptiles.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=138&t=23740&start=15
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