# Malta pt2



## kettykev (May 15, 2009)

*Wednesday 13th*
A very windy day and thus an interesting boat trip to the island of Comino, a very rocky place with lots of stone walls. We walked for hours flipping stones and we could see that somebody had previously been there as stones had been moved and not replaced. All we found were 1 Turkish gecko, several Ocellated skinks and lots of Maltese wall lizards, the Comino ones having a white ventral surface. One of the problems with the skinks was that they would lie half buried with their bodies curled looking like the coils of a snake, we were tricked by this many times.






























































At one point I decided to walk on a wall instead of along side it, I had taken my second step when a Western whip snake shot into the base of the wall and disappeared. Later as we returned to the harbour I saw another one looking at me from some bushes, I slowly raised my camera only to see it slide away as the image came into focus !!
*Thursday 14th*
The object of todays search was the Algerian Whip snake _Hemorrhois algirus_, Maltra is the only location in Europe where this snake occurs and then only around the port of Valetta, it is believed to have been a stowaway on boats. We drove into Valetta and parked the car finding Painted frgs in a small pond next to the carpark. We then began our search of the grounds surrounding the city fortifications, we searched very thoroughly finding plenty of Moorish Geckos and Ocellated skinks but no snakes. We then headed into town for some food passing some Wall lizards that made me stop, they just did not look right, I put it down to my inexperience and the variability of these lizards but they were unlike ones I had seen during the week.




































We returned to the snake site for another search but once again it proved fruitless despite being in the place where they had previously been seen.








One thing that I found strange about the location was the lack of Wall lizards, it seemed perfect conditions for them but we did not see one until we crossed the road into a cemetery. We headed back to the hotel stopping briefly at some water near Mosta finding Painted frogs.
A walk along the sea front in the evening revealed Wall lizards, Ocellated skinks and a rather smug looking cat with a rather dead looking Juvenile Western Whip snake !!!








*Friday 15th*
We woke to a very grey day with rain forecast but as it was our last day we had to try our hardest.A return visit to Valetta produced nothing so we walked into town for a bit of sightseeing. An afternoon trip to look for Chameleons was cancelled due to the rain so we stayed in the bar and sank a few beers.
9 species seen with 4 of them for the first time.


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