Herper of the Month - November 2006
"I was practically raised with a snake bag in hand - my Dad has been a herper since the mid-60s, and we have always had snakes, lizards, and salamanders at our house. When Dad left for college in 1966 (4 years before I was born), he left his box turtle collection at my Grandparents (his in-laws) who had a terraced back yard that was more or less escape-proof for the turtles. Some of my earliest memories involve searching for box turtles in their backyard every time we visited." |
| "Mom
& Dad always took us on vacations, many of which centered
on herping destinations. I remember herping in the Apalachicola
National Forest in the mid-to-late 1970s, herping in UT and Arizona
in the 80s, and (of course) herping all over the state of Texas.
Dad was a member of the Texas Herpetological Society, and every spring we went on the THS Spring Field Meet for a weekend of surveying various locales in TX for herp diversity." |
| "Dad
got seriously into photography in the early 1980s, and as the
older and presumably more patient son, I became the photographic
assistant - my hands are just outside of the frame on countless
of his photographs of snakes, lizards, frogs, and salamanders.
Following in Dad's footsteps as a photographer came naturally
to me. I started with a Pentax Spotmatic (which was stolen out
of my truck on a herping trip), next up was a Pentax K1000, then
a Pentax ZX5N, and most recently a Nikon D50. Photographing herps
is almost as fun as finding them, and now that conserving film
isn't an issue (praise be to Digital and 2 gig SD cards!), I'm
taking more and more photos every day." |
"Early on, I caught the Alterna (Gray-banded Kingsnake) bug from herpers at the Dallas Zoo in the early 1980s, an affliction that lingers with me still. Pretty much every summer I spend around an average of 1 month (30 nights) in the Trans-Pecos searching for this gem of North American Serpents. However, even though I'm extremely interested in Alterna, I have never kept them as the sole focus of my herping endeavors and I consider myself an all-around field herper. I've herped pretty much all across the US, from the Carolinas, to Florida west through TX and California. I've done a little herping in the Pacific NW and Midwest as well. This year alone, my trips ranged from a Spring Break trip to Florida, weekend trips to Kansas and East Texas, a 2 week trip to Califoria, and a 2 week trip to the Trans-Pecos." |
| "I do maintain a fairly large captive collection of herps, including: Alterna, Mt Kings, Milksnakes, Ratsnakes, Hognoses, Rosy Boas, Alligator Lizards, Musk Turtles, Tiger Salamanders, Amphiumas, Sirens, and a Water Dog." |
| "In 1991, I married a wonderful woman who also loves to go herping, and she has been my constant companion and herping partner these past 15 years. We have a wonderful daughter who also loves to go camping in the outdoors, and who enjoys hiking the hills with us." |
© Scott Waters Productions