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Today is Toad Day

The Common Toads (Bufo bufo) are finally very active in the local ponds. It's a lot of fun to watch them. Sometimes they are floating totally relaxed in the water, the next second they start to wrestle with competitors. I also love the sound of the cute continuous croaking.
While I was watching the toads for hours, I took many pictures... here is just a little selection of them. I mainly used the Canon 100mm macro lens, the two wide angle pictures at the end of this post were taken with the Laowa 15mm.

Sunshine and Lizards

As soon as the sun comes out, the Common Wall Lizards (Podarcis muralis) will do the same thing. Early in spring, even if it's still quite cold and many reptiles are hiding, these lizards show up to take a sunbath. I always like to walk along the old stone walls close to the Rhine, watching these reptiles. In some areas they are used to people walking by so they are not shy at all.

Here are a couple of the pictures I took. Very often they are just sneaking out of their "houses", offering perfect opportunities for portrait shots. Some lizards really seem to pose for the picture... one was even wearing a fancy firebug scarf.

March of the herps

This March was mainly very cold and grey in Germany. After the sun finally showed up, we went for a hike in the area and found some herps. First find was a Slow Worm (Anguis fragilis). A very handsome Viviparous Lizard (Zootoca vivipara) took a sunbath on a mossy wooden log. Common Toads (Bufo bufo) were active in the pond we came across.