H everyone,
All is well! I’ve had a busy few days though. I’ve decided on terraces, so now I am setting up an experiment looking at the insects, lizards and plants surrounding olive terraces in the Moni valley here on Naxos. I planted 12 pitfall traps and 8 sticky traps around each of 9 terraces and am planning on doing the same tomorrow. That means in three days when I go back to collect I’m going to be up to my eyeballs in soggy or sticky insects. I’ll make sure to send a picture.
Sinking traps makes for long days in the field, but I have high hopes that the data will give me a lot more information about the workings of these terraces. I’ll upload a few pictures of the pitfall traps and terraces soon once I get them off my camera.
I’m excited about my field site though. I’ve tons and tons of lizards all over the place and have actually seen three snakes so far including, most recently, Elaphe quaturolineata, a harmless but very big snake. This one was approaching 5 feet long but was very docile in-hand. I wish I’d had my camera with me so I could have taken a picture. I hope he’ll be wandering around my sites again in the future.
If you want to see some of my terraces you can actually see them on google maps. Search for Moni, Naxos, Greece and look in the valley to the south. That’s where I’m spending my days!
More updates soon!
Colin Donihue 
Very nice – I hope you do get a picture of your snake. Do they eat lizards?
Nice question. What eats snakes and lizards?
Yes! The snakes do seem to eat lizards. At least the four lined snake I wrote about here and the viper I’ve mentioned before. As for their predators? Cats for sure, some birds maybe but for the most part the snakes are the top predators. Great questions!
Nice looks as though your experiment is taking shape. One can never collect too much data.
Love the trumpet. Lots of work. Hope the traps are full when you check them.