My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
Monteggio, Ticino (Switzerland), May 2021
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
You find a selection of my 80 BEST PHOTOS (mostly not yet on Flickr) here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
ABOUT THE PHOTO:
So this photo is a bit of a novelty for me - at least here on Flickr, but it's also a journey back in time in a sense. I've always loved b/w and sepia photography; already as a very young teenager I would go out into the woods with an old Pentax Spotmatic (which I had nicked from my father) whenever it was a foggy day to shoot b/w compositions of sunbeams cutting through the ghostlike trees.
I used films with a sensitivity of at least 1600 (for those of you who remember what that means 😉 ), and the resulting photos had an incredibly fine grain which I loved; I blew them up to the size of posters and hung them on the walls of my teenage man-cave next to Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Slash.
But then I abandoned photography altogether for 20 years, and when I finally picked up a camera again, it was one of the digital kind. Now neither film nor grain played any role in my photographic endeavours - let alone b/w compositions: because the reason I fell in love with shooting pictures once more was the rare and incredibly colorful lizard species that had chosen my garden as its habitat.
It's this species - the Lacerta bilineata aka the western green lizard - that my photo website www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ and also my Flickr gallery are dedicated to, but I've since expanded that theme a bit so that it now comprises the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat, which is to say my garden and its immediate surroundings and all the flora and fauna I find in it.
I like that my gallery and the website have this clear theme, because in order to rise to the challenge of portraying all aspects of a very specific little eco system (which also happens to be my home of sorts), it forces me to constantly explore it from fresh angles, and I keep discovering fascinating new motives as my photographic journey continues.
Which brings me to the horse pasture you see in this photo. This playground for happy horsies lies just outside my garden, and it normally only interests me insofar as my green reptile friends claim parts of it as their territory, and I very much prefer it to be horseless (which it thankfully often is).
Not that the horses bother the reptiles - the lizards don't mind them one bit, and I've even seen them jump from the safety of the fly honeysuckle shrub which the pasture borders on right between the deadly looking hooves of the horses to forage for snails, without any sign of fear or even respect.
No, the reason I have a very conflicted relationship with those horses is that they are mighty cute and that there's usually also foals. The sight of those beautiful, happy animals jumping around and frolicking (it's a huge pasture and you can tell the horses really love it) is irresistible: and that inevitably attracts what in the entire universe is known as the most destructive anti-matter and ultimate undoing of any nature photographer: other humans.
Unlike with the horses, the lizards ARE indeed very much bothered by specimens of loud, unpredictable Homo sapiens sapiens - which makes those (and by extension also the horses) the cryptonite of this here reptile photographer. It's not the horses' fault, I know that, but that doesn't change a thing. I'm just telling you how it is (and some of you might have read about the traumatic events I had to endure to get a particular photo - if not, read at your own risk here: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51405389883/in/datepo... - which clearly demonstrated that even when it's entirely horseless, that pasture is still a threat for artistic endeavours).
But back to the photo. So one morning during my vacation back in May I got up quite early. It had rained all night, and now the fog was creeping up from the valley below to our village just as the sky cleared up and the morning sun started to shine through the trees.
And just as I did when I was a teenager I grabbed my camera and ran out to photograph this beautiful mood of ghostlike trees and sunbeams cutting through the mist. There had already been such a day a week earlier (which is when I took this photo: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/51543603732/in/datepo... ), but this time, the horses were also there.
Because of our slightly strained relationship I only took this one photo of them (I now wish I had taken more: talk about missed opportunities), and otherwise concentrated on the landscape. It was only later when I went through all the photos on my computer that I realized that I actually really liked those horses, even despite the whole composition being such a cliché. And I realized another thing: when I drained the photo of all the color, I liked it even better - because there was almost a bit of grain in it, like in the photos from my youth.
Since then I have experimented quite a bit with b/w and sepia compositions (some of which I will upload here eventually I guess), but this photo here is the first one that helped me rediscover my old passion. I hope you like it even though it builds quite a stark contrast with the rest of my tiny - and very colorful - gallery. But in the spirit of showing you the whole Lacerta bilineata habitat (and also in the spirit of expanding my gallery a bit beyond lizards and insects), I think it's not such a bad fit.
As always, many greetings to all of you, have a wonderful day and don't hesitate to let me know what you think 😊
Tags: Ticino Switzerland horses fog mist monochrome black and white sepia sony dsc-rx10m4 gogoschka Lacerta Bilineata BRAVO Animals sony rx10m4 animal lacerta bilineata schwarzweiss b/n n/b monteggio cavallo pferd cheval caballo nebel brouillard nebbia rx10m4 sony
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My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
European hornet (Vespa crabro), 10-2022, Ticino, Switzerland
If you're interested, you can find my best photos of the WILDLIFE IN TICINO, SWITZERLAND here: fr.lacerta-bilineata.com/l%C3%A9zard-vert-occidental-lace...
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO:
I guess you can tell by the look on its face that this is not a happy hornet. That's not unusual for hornets - truth be told, variations of "not happy" "angry", or at least "badly irritated" seem to be pretty much their natural state of mind - but what's interesting about the fella above is that he also wasn't exactly sober.
To spell it out more clearly: that was one hammered hornet. It was so drunk in fact, it couldn't fly for two seconds straight without crashing. I shot that photo in my garden last fall, but as with all my pictures, I'll try to give you a bit more context.
Every year at least one hornet queen decides that some crack or hole inside the thick stone walls of my 400-year old house in Ticino is the perfect place to raise her royal family.
That in itself wouldn't pose a problem, but if there's one thing we know about "royals", it's that they're a complicated bunch (though it has to be said for both princes William and Harry that they rarely build little palaces inside the walls of some stranger's house, but I digress).
There is a slight potential for conflict; in my experience, all hornets are born with a sweet tooth and a bad temper, and particularly when there's ripe figs in my garden, tensions can rise.
That is entirely my fault though, because I still sometimes foolishly try to negotiate the human place in the food- (or rather: fruit-) chain, despite knowing perfectly well that fig season isn't the time to want to improve human-hornet relations, as any attempt in that regard will inevitably follow the same frustrating pattern:
Human: "Oh hello there Ms Hornet, how nice to meet you here at the fig tree - isn't the weather just lovely?"
Hornet: "Bzzzzzz. I have a sting. Bzzzzz. Go away. Bzzzzz."
Human: "There is really no need to be so angry, dear Ms Hornet: we're all friends here, and there's enough figs for all of us! How are the kids, I mean... larvae?"
Hornet: "Bzzzzzz. I have a sting. Bzzzzz. Go away. Bzzzzz."
Human: "Jeez, OK - relax! I can see you have a sting, I'm going, all right? You can have all the figs Ms Hornet, see: I'm already leaving!"
Hornet: "Bzzzzz. Yes, I have a sting. Bzzzzz. Don't come back. Bzzzzz."
And that's how THAT conversation goes.
Yet despite our occasional differences (like when I nearly died of smoke inhalation because Her Royal Hornet Majesty had decided my chimney was another suitable place for her nest), I'm happy to report we generally get along quite well, unless... - well, unless the hornets are intoxicated.
It's one of nature's lesser known facts (or perhaps its dirty secret) that many of our friends in the animal kingdom occasionally like to get high, and hornets are no exception. Not on anything illegal, mind; they are law-abiding insects after all, so you won't see them smoke crack or snort cocaine (although with some hornets I wouldn't rule that out completely 😉).
No: their usual drug of choice is alcohol, which my irritable neighbors find - surprise! - in my fig tree. Once some of the overripe fruit start to ferment, their potent juices become a magnet for hornets - and that's when the trouble starts.
It should come as no surprise that "hornets and hooch" are an inherently problematic combination. Because the crux with alcohol is this: it doesn't alter your personality, it only brings out the character traits that are already there without a filter, so you just become a terribly unrestrained version of yourself when you drink too much.
Which with hornets - who aren't the most cheerful bunch even on a good day - is a recipe for disaster. They are MEAN drunks - and I'm not kidding, oh boy. All that bottled-up anger constantly boiling underneath that shiny, chitin surface from the moment they hatch is finally released into the world, and it's not a pleasant sight, let me tell you.
Alcohol REALLY doesn't seem to improve their mood, and the other animals in my garden all agree (and I concur) that the fig tree would be a much happier place if the hornets just smoked weed and listened to Bob Marley instead (if them getting high can't be avoided altogether).
To be fair though, not all hornets have a drinking problem. Most of them behave responsibly and "don't drink and fly" (which I'm sure is a motto that gets taught in hornet school from an early age). And they don't get high all year long: It's only when fall arrives that the hornets like to have a merry get-together in my fig tree to get a good "buzz on".
But you know how it is: just like with any good party, there's always the ONE guy who can't hold his liquor and basically turns into your crazy, drunk uncle at Christmas who starts picking fights with every one at the dinner table and insists on letting you know - very loudly - what he thinks about Trump or Biden or the Corona virus once he's had one too many.
Which finally brings me back to the fella in the photo above, because apparently he was THAT guy. That particular "drunk uncle" hornet sat underneath the fig tree on a fallen (and pretty rotten looking) fruit and was deep into its cups. As soon as it saw me, it started to buzz angrily and seemed intent on a confrontation, but it didn't manage to get airborne for more than a second.
After a few more failed attempts to lift off and a few more angry "Bzzzzzz" sounds (I think I actually did hear the words "Trump", "Biden" and "Corona" in there 😉), it just went back to boozing on the juices of the spoiled fig on the ground.
I left it to its own devices, happy that I got this quite expressive shot. 😊
P.S. I think it was actually a crazy, drunk AUNT - not an uncle 😉)
P.P.S. Just to make sure we understand each other (maybe as a disclaimer for readers who come to this gallery for the first time and aren't familiar with my kind of humor): I love the fact that these beautiful insects visit my garden. Watching how these efficient predators hunt wasps, horseflies or other insects is incredibly fascinating (adult hornets themselves mainly feed on sugary plant juices, but they hunt because their young need protein to grow).
Hornets may seem like they're constantly angry (which to me is funny - hence this text), but they're not; they're actually very peaceful towards humans, and even when you compete for a ripe fig with them, their furious buzzing is mostly just a bluff, and I've never been stung (and I don't know anyone who has).
Due to the unfounded fear many people have of hornets, who often get exterminated because they're confused with common wasps, this species is threatened in many countries (in Germany for example, hornets are a protected species). But unless you step (or sit) on them or destroy their nest, hornets don't attack, and even when they're drunk, they are usually so incapacitated that they are completely harmless (just like your uncle/aunt 😉).
So if you have hornets in your garden, just enjoy watching them and please don't harm them! 🙏 🙏 ❤ ❤
With that being said, I hope you like the photo and wish you all a wonderful weekend! Many greetings from Switzerland, and as always: let me know what you think in the comments 🙏 😊 ❤!
Tags: Ticino Switzerland animal animals bilineata gogoschka Malcantone Monteggio portrait rx10m4 Schweiz Sony SONY DSC-RX10M4 Sony DSC-RX10 Mark IV sony rx10m4 suisse svizzera swiss Tessin lacerta lacerta bilineata insekt insect insetto hornisse hornet European hornet Vespa crabro calabrone drunk animals frelon avispón insecto makro macro
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My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
Monteggio, Malcantone (Ticino, Switzerland), May 2021
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
You find a selection of my 80 BEST PHOTOS (mostly not yet on Flickr) here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/western-green-lizard-lacerta-bi... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
ABOUT THE PHOTO (btw, I really recommend the enlarged view, I think it makes quite a difference):
One of the reasons I'm so in love with this little oasis of mine in southern Switzerland is the weather. And I'm not just talking about the generally warmer temperatures in Ticino (although those are indeed very welcome), but rather about how many different types of weather can be observed, or rather experienced, particularly in the Malcantone region.
Temperatures range from freezing cold to tropical, and particularly in late spring and early summer every week (sometimes every day) can be different. A hot day might end with an intense thunderstorm, and the next day the landscape can be covered in fog as if it were November. The photo above was taken on the same morning as the previous one showing the horses, after a night of intense rain and heavy storms.
On that morning I must have taken hundreds of photos of that same horse pasture and the surrounding woods (and to the left you can see part of the fly honeysuckle shrub that houses the local western green lizard population), because the mood kept shifting from minute to minute. As the mist from the valley below didn't rise steadily but came up to our village in waves, the light and colors were constantly changing, depending how much sunlight was able to get through the moving fog.
At times the whole landscape seemed as if it were submerged under the sea, dark marine colors dominating for a couple of minutes, before a few more sunbeams were able to cut through, and the world around me came back to the surface. Although I wasn't able to photograph any of my lizard pals that morning, I was very happy for once to just capture that horse pasture (which is part of the western green lizards' habitat after all 😉) right across form my garden, and I'll eventually upload a few more photos from that day for sure.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photo. As always, many greetings from Switzerland and have a lovely day everyone - and don't hesitate to let me know what you think. 😊
Tags: Ticino Switzerland sony dsc-rx10m4 Lacerta Bilineata gogoschka green sony rx10m4 landscape mist fog rain nebbia brouillard sunbeams beams sun sunrays rays tessin schweiz svizzera monteggio suisse suiza lacerta bilineata rx10m4 sony
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Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) | 05-2022 | Ticino | Switzerland
If anyone can identify the grasshopper, that would be helpful, thank you!
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO:
The wild garden around my vacation home in Ticino, where all the photos you can see in my Flickr gallery are from (well, some have been taken a couple of meters outside, but that still counts in my book 😉), had been a cause of contention between me and my mom for some time.
At the root of the conflict was the upper part of the garden, which originally had been conceived by my dear mother as a vegetable patch, but, left to its own devices by me after I "inherited" it, had developed into a marvelous oasis of pure botanic chaos teeming with insect life.
Mom was not amused. Although she - like all in our family - is very much in favor of letting nature roam freely around the house, and she loves all creatures big and small, she (unlike me) does draw a line somewhere. That line was the vegetable patch.
And she let her disapproval be known, and very clearly; she kept pestering me about my unwillingness to pluck the weeds (my response: "What weeds - there are no weeds: I'm creating a functioning ecosystem here, mom!") for several years, until my stubborn refusal made her reach her breaking point. She'd finally had enough.
My mom is a cunning old lady of nearly 80 years (79 to be precise), the matriarch and evil genius of our family (make no mistake: that house and garden are still HERS - and forever will be, regardless what it says on some sheet of paper), and so like a James Bond villain plotting revenge, she hatched a diabolic plan.
One day, when I was gone for a couple of weeks, she let me know via e-mail she had decided to turn this ugly weed jungle of mine into a flowery meadow. There was nothing I could do as she had already ordered a local gardening company to level that part of the garden, and once that was accomplished, as she described with obvious relish, the gardener would plant the most beautiful wild flowers and turn this ugly mess of mine into a colorful paradise.
I was not amused by this at all, as you might imagine, but there was nothing I could do to save my gorgeous oasis of chaos, so I grumpily accepted "my" garden's fate. After that, my mom avoided me whenever she could, and when she couldn't, she wouldn't mention the garden at all. This didn't strike me as odd, since I assumed she might feel at least a little bit guilty about her sneaky move (at this point, I hadn't seen the "improved" version of the garden yet).
Cut to a few weeks later, when I went back to Ticino and finally DID see the "flowery meadow" and "colorful paradise" my dear mother had ordered. My jaw dropped. But in shock - not in awe of flowery beauty of any kind: as there were NO flowers of any kind. What there was, was sod. Plain, ugly sod, completely devoid of any insect (or other animal) life, already turning into a brownish yellow due to a lack of rain in the past weeks.
You see, my mom's Italian is not very good (in fact, it's so far from good that it could be argued she doesn't speak it at all) and as it turned out, there had been a "slight" misunderstanding. Instead of planting gorgeous wild flowers, the local gardener (whose Italian is impeccable by the way), put turf rolls down after he'd leveled my oasis; turf rolls of the kind that is usually used for sterile football fields.
OK (you, dear reader, might say at this point); sad story, bro - but what does it have to do with the swallowtail in the photo? The answer is: everything. The past autumn and all through spring this year I've been planting wild flowers in that garden like a mad botanist; I've planted field scabiouses and red clover, ox-eye daisies, echium, salvia and thyme and lavender as well as plants for the caterpillars of the in Switzerland rare swallowtail butterfly such as fennel and wild carrots.
This was my desperate attempt to undo the damage and terrible devastation my mother's wrath had brought upon the earth (well, my garden's earth anyway) and turn this sod-desert into an oasis of pure botanic chaos and a colorful paradise teeming with insect life once more.
And it worked! Ever since those plants started flowering my garden has been an attraction for all kinds of butterflies and generally insects, even rare ones - and, obviously, my dearest guest and visitor that you can see in the photo above: the swallowtail.
These gorgeous butterflies are now steady guests, and they even laid their eggs on the fennel (which is now a nursery for cute swallowtail caterpillars). So in the end, my mom's will prevailed (as is always the case with the wills of all moms all over the world - don't kid yourselves, kids 😉). My weeds are gone, there now is indeed a flowery meadow - and there's even vegetables (although the fennel is strictly for the swallowtails 😊).
I have a creeping suspicion maybe my mom's Italian is better than she lets on...
Tags: sony dsc-rx10m4 swallowtail old world swallowtail papilio machaon machaon macaone macaon schwalbenschwanz gogoschka Lacerta Bilineata Animals Butterflies Insects sony rx10m4 insect animal tessin ticino monteggio schweiz switzerland suisse svizzera butterfly schmettering papillon farfalla lepidottero rx10m4
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My best photos are here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
Western Green Whip Snake (Hierophis Viridiflavus), 09-2021, Monteggio TI (CH)
More TICINO/TESSIN Wildlife Photos (all taken in my garden in Monteggio/Ti, Switzerland): it.lacerta-bilineata.com/ramarro-occidentale-lacerta-bili... (the website exists in ESPAÑOL, FRANÇAIS, ITALIANO, ENGLISH, DEUTSCH)
My latest ANIMAL VIDEO (warning, it's a bit shocking): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2-Xszz7FI
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO:
If you think this snake looks kind of angry, I'd say you're right: it certainly wasn't happy to see me. This type of snake - a western whip snake (Hierophis viridiflavus) is normally very shy; in my experience it flees with enormous speed as soon as it senses or sees a human approaching - unless it thinks it's already too late for fleeing (like when you surprise it in your cellar and it can't get away, which happened to a neighbor once).
In those latter instances, it's very aggressive: it hisses loudly and gets into an upright position like a cobra, and if that doesn't help it will bite you and sometimes not let go (but to be clear, although a bite may be very painful and people with a phobia of snakes might die of fear, this snake is completely harmless 😉)
The German name for the snake alludes to its short-tempered character: it's called "Zorn-Natter", which means as much as "anger-snake" (although "Natter" is the German word only for non-venomous snakes in Euorpe, not snakes in general). It's one of the biggest snakes to be found in Switzerland, and can grow to a length of almost 2 meters.
Now this snake DID see me approach (probably long before I myself saw the snake) - still, it didn't flee. It was early September, and I was looking for western green lizards (Lacerta bilineata) in the fly honeysuckle shrub right outside my garden, when I suddenly realized a big branch stretching over the leaves wasn't a branch at all.
Because the snake didn't flee I believed it hadn't seen me, and I assumed its head was on the far end (both ends of the snake's body were hidden in the foliage), so I tried to find an angle where I could see the head in the hope of a usable photo.
No such luck: because it was the wrong end. Now the other end of the snake's body was pretty close to me and only maybe 1.5 meters away, but from my elevated point of view it was hidden under the leaves. When I slowly went down to my knees to take a peek, I suddenly looked right into a pair of eyes that fixated me with the not very friendly stare you see in this photo. But why didn't the snake flee? This was strange (though I was grateful since it's not easy to get such a shot of an animal that is normally so shy).
And then I saw the reason: only 40 centimeters away from the snake there was a huge male western green lizard, basking in the sun. Now it all became clear: I had obviously interrupted the "biacco" (which is the snake's local Italian name) just as it was getting ready to have a juicy lizard lunch. Much as my presence caused the snake discomfort and certainly fear, it just wasn't ready to let go of such a whopper of a meal. The lizard was blissfully unaware of either me or its impending doom, and thus I found myself faced with a terrible dilemma.
You see, western green lizards are my favorite animals, and although I adore snakes too, the tiny local western green population - already under permanent siege by the many cats in the village and always on the verge of perishing - has grown close to my heart. After observing these lizards for so long, I know most individuals by their color patterns, and the loss of any of them really gets to me. But unlike with the cats (which is a human problem that the cats - whom I love dearly as pets - aren't to blame for), this snake was a natural enemy, and it also had to eat, so I knew the right thing to do was to let nature run its course.
But knowing what the right thing to do is, and actually DOING the right thing, are two different pair of shoes. To my shame I decided to interfere (I honestly, REALLY am not proud of that, and I'm not kidding, but it is what it is). Once that decision was made, I quickly acted.
I didn't want to chase the snake away because that seemed mean (and the fella hadn't done anything wrong), so rather than that I hoped I could catch the lizard's attention. What I actually did (and I promise that is the honest-to-God truth): I made a wave-like movement with my arm and hand. This was - obvisously - the sign for "Snaaake!!!" that I was sure would transcend the human-lizard communication barrier - and I'm sure it WOULD have, had the lizard not been happily dozing with its eyes closed.
So I whispered: "Duuuude, there's a huuuuge snake right next to you!" Naturally, I said this in Italian (these lizards have never been outside our village, so I knew they didn't speak English 😉 ). No reaction. So in a final desperate attempt I shook the branch the lizard sat on, and now it dazedly openend its eyes.
It took the target of my clumsy rescue attempts maybe a second to realize a two-legged, giant monster was shaking its residence, but then it quickly dove into the foliage for cover - but not alone: the snake was right behind it! Western whip snakes are extremely agile hunters, so through my idiotic action I might have doomed my green friend (who had no idea there even was a snake lurking when I caused him to move) after all.
Truth is, I don't know what happened. Hunter and prey disappeared at the same time, and then it was all quiet; I didn't hear the slightest noise that would have hinted at a struggle. When I came back to the shrub an hour or so later I spotted a male Lacerta bilineata that I'm pretty sure was the one I had tried to save.
It didn't move when I approached and was either paralized with fear (or shock after a narrow escape), or it just thought I hadn't seen it and relied completely on its camouflage. Either way, this fella allowed me to make the best close-up and even macro shots I was ever able to make of the species (you can find those on my website via my profile in case you're interested).
Who knows, I keep telling myself the little fella decided to pose like that out of gratitude... 😉
I hope you like the photo (and sorry if I bored you with my lengthy post ) Greetings to you all and have a lovely day/evening!
Tags: Hierophis viridiflavus Green Whip Snake Zornnatter Couleuvre verte et jaune Biacco Culebra Verdiamarilla sony dsc-rx10m4 Lacerta Bilineata gogoschka Western Green Whip Snake green Animals Snakes Reptiles schlange sony rx10m4 reptil grün vert verde animal lacerta bilineata monteggio rx10m4 sony snake portrait portrait animal portrait portraits
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