While trekking on Ermida’s waterfall, I spotted
a couple of rock-lizards, jumping in an out of the rocks, with their movements
more managed by sunshine / rain conditions than affected by my presence. This
one was sneaking out of the rock and allowed me to get closer enough for some
macro shots.
After these, I went back to landscape photos
and exchanged lens. I’m very careful with my equipment but I made a costly
mistake due to this carefulness. Being away from my backpack, I didn’t want to
place the lens on the rocky ground, thus I wrapped it in a t-shirt. An hour
later, I totally forgot about the lens and, when picking up the clothing, I
heard a rolling sound, river down… I looked and my macro lens was now a rolling
black barrel in super-slow motion. I ran and jumped after it, while it was
heading to the river stream at the same speed. No win there. It fell into the
river and now was more like a submarine than a boat, heading with the stream. A
glimpse of hope surged when the lens was caught in a whirlpool of a small water
fall. I stretched my hand for it… It jumped again, at a distance of a hand.
This time, caught into the main stream of Ermida’s waterfall. It disappeared
into a deep hole, beneath a massive amount of water flow. It now belongs there,
as this long, slow motion chase in my memory. I'm ellecting this photo as the tomb for a cheap macro lens that has done its job well. Now, time to add a new lens to my
wish list (and money to the wallet).
Back to the rock-lizard, I also found out that
distinguishing these exemplar between two species is quite difficult. Beyond typical
databases, a net-search turns out lots of papers regarding comparison between Podarcis bocagei and Podarcis hispanica. Both common in North
part of Portugal, though hispanica is
considered and endangered species. From some descriptions, regarding the shape
of the head and eyes, I’m forwarding this as hispanica.
Iberian rock lizard / Largatixa-ibérica (PT) – Podarcis
hispanica
Ermida,
Gerês, Portugal
2012, May
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