Croatia, June 2023
June was always going to be a little too late in the year to enable long hours of reptile searching at sensible temperatures, but as with most European locations there was always the expectation (or at least hope) that some mornings and/or evenings would provide. Because most of our trips aim to tread that fine balance between herping and holidays (and more often than not they come quite close to almost meeting that balance), a slightly out of season wildlife wander keeps everyone happy these days anyway.
Arriving in Zagreb as the ridge of Medvednica darkened in the early evening, we deftly negotiated our way through our car hire agreement and were soon on our way towards a pizza and sleep stop about 30 minutes away. The first nightingales of the trip sang out from the scrubby areas opposite the hotel car park as a tawny owl drifted past on the edge of the streetlights.
Arriving in Zagreb as the ridge of Medvednica darkened in the early evening, we deftly negotiated our way through our car hire agreement and were soon on our way towards a pizza and sleep stop about 30 minutes away. The first nightingales of the trip sang out from the scrubby areas opposite the hotel car park as a tawny owl drifted past on the edge of the streetlights.
We then headed south towards Gospić with the aim of using this area as a base from which to explore the wider region. The landscapes during the drive down were majestical: kilometres of forests, meadows and mountains looking more like scenery I’ve seen in North America as opposed to somewhere reachable after a couple of hours in a Ryanair sardine tin. Three mammalian apex predators are present in Croatia and these are catered for with this refreshingly large quantity of natural habitat, and we passed under many ‘bear bridges’ that span the roads and connect each swathe of forest. What a splendid first impression of a country. For all of you familiar with the UK, just picture the opposite.
The delightful habitat continued right to our house where we were greeted with more UK rarities such as Red-backed shrike, Hawfinch, Lesser-spotted woodpecker, Golden oriole and Red squirrels. A short scramble up a hill near the property provided the first snake of the trip when a small Nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) was disturbed by my ungainly stumbling through neck-high bracken.
Temperatures were slightly cooler in this elevated area of the country – and the weather conditions were more than slightly unpredictable. For a couple of days we attempted to dodge the rain and storms as we explored some areas around Velebit. Evidence of wild boar was present virtually everywhere we walked, with wildflowers and numerous butterflies in these areas indicative of the natural ecosystem present here. The clouds and rain meant that herp opportunities popped up at various parts of the day, with a large Western whip snake (Hierophis viridiflavus carbonarius) out basking by a roadside one late afternoon being a particular bonus. On another morning I spied another 4 of them within 20 metres of each other on the steep edge of road curve nearby.
Other local wildlife included Peregrine, Black woodpecker and numerous lizards. Some morning rain also brought out a beautiful Fire salamander which was escorted from the road seconds before a couple of cars drove past. I was shocked at the size of these things as for some reason I always just expected them to resemble a fancy Great-crested newt, man was I wrong. What a creature. I can see why some of the Euro-herping folks go crazy for these things.
As is customary these days, we needed to sample a ‘National Park’ so that at the very least we could compare it to ours back in the UK and get depressed. We decided to skip two of the more well-known parks in case they were ‘too peoply’ and instead opted to walk up the smaller gorge at Paklenica NP. I say walk, some of it was more of a crawl. An athletic crawl though. Betwixt the crawling sections we spotted a nice male Eastern subalpine warbler, attempted to get binoculars on 4 mystery falcons chasing each other a few kms further above the gorge, got briefly excited before we realised that some movement in the grass was a Glass lizard and not a snake, and took a blurry photo of the first tortoise of the trip.
The odd foray into coastal lowlands included visits to Pag, Vrana and Karlobag – the latter being more memorable for pizza, Magnums and fizzers as opposed to the lizards and testudos we managed to locate in the surrounding ruins and church walls.
Pag provided a much-needed escape from the storms in the mountains, and although the dark clouds and thunder continued to hover around us all day it didn’t stop the local raptors from drifting about over the marshes.
We also had Rock partridge here along with the usual dose of Yellow wagtail and Corn bunting. Many terrapins (Emys orbicularis) were out of the water, seemingly doing a bit of digging on the edge of low brambles. Probably egg-laying time, or maybe just a nice bit of digging weather. We’ll never know.
We left Pag and tried an early-evening search at another bit of ruin and found a lovely big Balkan whip snake (Hierophis gemonensis). We then had a late meal featuring the cheesiest gnocchi ever created before returning to the house in the mist where a little glow worm directed us into the driveway.
The Vrana daytrip turned up a few interesting critters including an Olive bee hawkmoth, Pygmy cormorants and a fleeing Dice snake (Natrix tessellata) which was only spotted by Jill. I was hoping more would show up, but somehow none did. Their time would come anyway. Another snake evaded us in some nearby ruins, likely another H.gemonensis, and then almost at sunset this delightful Leopard snake (Zamenis situla) turned up.
Before moving on to write about the next part of the trip, special mention must be given to the huge dog that turned up at our house in the early hours one morning (I briefly thought a bear was outside our window). Big, friendly and smelly.
For the second part of the Croatian adventure we relocated further north, closer to Krk but still within range of Risnjak NP and Učka to allow a bit of mountain-based daytrippin’. The weather here certainly felt more like the Mediterranean in June and the temperatures really shortened the herping windows.
Učka was a bit of classical hill walk. The landscape is awesome, but I’m not huge fan of just walking up – which this mostly was. I’d hoped for some eagle spotting from the top of the climb, but we had to settle for loads of swifts (Alpine included) bombing around our heads instead. We did see some cool butterflies including assorted ringlets and grayling (all of which I was too lazy to photograph for ID) , and treated ourself to a couple of well-earned strudels once we’d retreated.
Back at the coast we wandered past some replica ‘Tunera’ fish-spying ladders from back as far as the 1600s when someone would perch up high on the shore and alert the fishermen when shoals of tuna came within reach of the nets. Imagine that now, you’d be waiting up those ladders for a long time.
Back at the coast we wandered past some replica ‘Tunera’ fish-spying ladders from back as far as the 1600s when someone would perch up high on the shore and alert the fishermen when shoals of tuna came within reach of the nets. Imagine that now, you’d be waiting up those ladders for a long time.
It goes without saying that Risnjak NP is another awesome chunk of natural habitat and is home to the apex predators mentioned earlier. However, our ‘Risnjak day’ had the misfortune of coming after a fairly long day on Krk (more on Krk to follow) and neither of us even entertained the thought of slogging up another mountain. We did have a couple of mystery buzzards briefly overhead on the drive in, but after pulling over and grabbing binoculars they had vanished, much like my energy. We therefore opted for the beginners slope for this one, and had an easy circular wander either side of Iced coffees and spotting numerous Natrix in a nearby pond and stream.
On a side note here, a couple of ladies did drive into the carpark and allowed their unleashed dogs to run around the area, putting an end to the quiet wildlife-watching. I wasn’t going to mention it, but it did happen. Just can’t seem to escape from these useless pet owners.
We made a few visits to Krk where I was dismayed to see many rocks flipped and not replaced. I’m not sure what idiots were doing this, maybe collectors with no love for wild creatures or maybe just herpers with incredibly low moral standards. Either way, your kind is not welcome here, or anywhere for that matter. Find another hobby you morons.
Still, we managed to find some nice trails to walk on (usually aiming for shadier areas of forest and shrubs) and luckily managed to turn up a few critters – with Jill spotting a juvenile Four-lined snake (Elaphe quatuorlineata) within 2 minutes of our first excursion.
Still, we managed to find some nice trails to walk on (usually aiming for shadier areas of forest and shrubs) and luckily managed to turn up a few critters – with Jill spotting a juvenile Four-lined snake (Elaphe quatuorlineata) within 2 minutes of our first excursion.
This was the smallest of this species I’d seen, and unfortunately later in that afternoon I was unable to get a decent photo of the largest specimen I’d ever seen – it was an absolute monster, thicker than my arm, but it had cunningly decided to show up on the wrong side of a 9ft fence.
Another small but very welcome snake was the juvenile Aesculapian (Zamenis longissimus) that we found in another shady area of forest.
Another small but very welcome snake was the juvenile Aesculapian (Zamenis longissimus) that we found in another shady area of forest.
We had a couple of short night-wanders to see if anything was about, but Scops owl, nightjars and the odd scorpion and hedgehog were about all we could manage. We also had a Green lizard roosting in a tree like some sort of tropical Anolis or Calotes - I didn’t realise they did this.
On one particularly hot day we gave up on exploring a central part of the island and instead opted for trying to locate some cold drinks. After successful frappes, unexpected rain clouds began to move in so we quickly hit a trail close by and almost immediately came face to face with a large Four-lined snake (E.quatuorlineata). A very decent size (although not even close to the monster mentioned previously), and although this guy was missing a bit of tail and generally bore the scars of a veteran snake that had seen the world, it was in good condition and a pleasure to encounter before it returned into the forest.
In one last effort to turn up anything nocturnal, we took a twilight stroll among churring nightjars as the lights along the Adriatic coast began to shimmer. And then night fell on the mountains, the bear bridges and the veterans of the forests.