Field Herp Forum

Great thread. That last Giant garter in Elliot's post is insane! And that first Red-Sided of Owen's is nothing to poke a stick at either. I wish I had a bunch of gnarly Garter snake pics to contribute but really these two are the only ones that come to mind... This thick and healthy Mountain Garter ...

To put it simply... yes, its unethical to flip through someone's board-line. That's probably not the answer you wanted to hear but I'm just being honest. That said, almost nothing in field herping is black and white... hence all the long replies above, and the one your about to get haha. I'm not gon...

Richard,

What kind of Garter snakes were you turning up?

Also I sent you an email regarding your trip down here in March.

-Mark

Glad to hear you've been having some success up there Richard, thanks for sharing. And congrats on hitting 50 consecutive years... I love your dedication! John Lauermann and I turned up a few Rosy Boas (aka the wrong boa LOL) earlier this week down in Southern Calif. Temperatures were much higher du...

Gotta love the variability of those Northwestern garters... I have to disagree with your opinion of Valley garters (fitchi) though, they're actually my favorite! I did notice a minor mistake in your write-up, you have the latin names for Valley garters and CA red-sided swapped, fitchi = valley and i...

Last spring while hunting Zonata in the central Sierra my dad turned up a Rubber at roughly 3,600'... I thought this seemed kinda low, but then again I am no expert on the range. There's others on this forum that could give you a much better answer... I would imagine they exist at lower elevations t...

LOL

Fantastic report Richard. Thanks for sharing.

Happy holidays, hope to do some hunting with you next year

the first sidewinder I ever found was coiled up under a boulder mid day in CA's low desert...
cloudy days seem to work best

*tried to upload a pic but I guess my picture files are too large, and now TinyPic is belly up... that's nice...

also looks like you've gotten some great responses/pictures

@ blacktara I think 2017 was the last year Dave did this, floodwaters moved all his boards around and in a way destroyed the survey. I can't imagine how bad the floods were last winter, a spot I had been hunting in spring 2018 was 6 feet underwater this year... That said it really is a shame, Dave h...

Outstanding.

I have a lot of respect for species that adapt to survive in disturbed/changing habitat, that's probably why I like Giant garters so much... living in nasty rice field canals and chowing down on invasive bullfrogs, they really are badass snakes...

great video

Nice one!

Thanks, one of my favorite finds of the year so far. Seems like luck definitely plays a part in finding kingsnake morphs. I only spent 3 days hunting within delta range this year and managed to find one so you just never know. Sounds like you have a nice sample size of kings from that area, I'm sure...

Wow congrats, that's a beautiful snake

I found one this year as well...





Doesn't get much better than a nice black bellied king!

@ Brian Hubbs - Thanks Brian, it was a lot of fun haha

@ r.edwards - Thanks, glad you enjoyed it

@ SurfinHerp - Thanks Jeff! I really liked those finds too.

@ ricrabt - Thanks John. That Boa was so orange...

Been a while since I last posted but figured I should put up some highlights from an awesome year. The 2016/2017 winter in California was one of the wettest on record, surpassing the 1982/1983 El Nino rain totals in many parts of the state. All this precipitation made 2017 an epic year for snake hun...

Nice work dudes

Nice finds!

Keep it up

Great post dude!

Oreganus are definitely my favorite species of rattlesnake,
so variable in pattern/color and they hang out in some awesome habitat

Posts like this are why I joined this forum...

Awesome stuff

Amazing finds and photographs!

Glad to see you made the most of the epic conditions we had in 2017.

That 2nd Sidewinder shot really stood out to me, should definitely be published

Love those faded looking desert boas, great post.

There's nothing to see at WW anyway, don't bother cruising there.

Was there monday and the fire closure is now in effect.

If chapters are going to exist on FHF now, they should be FHF Chapters so I can support them properly. I think this route may be the best way to go. I really like the idea of NAFHA and it's advocation for citizen science/conservation, and would hate to see it disolve... That being said, it's future...

Thanks for the info and additional pic Porter


Went digging to find a shot from the last time I had a Collared in hand,
sure enough you can see a small cluster of orange mites in the middle of his collar...

Yep I'm with rpecora on this one. After taking a better look at your picture, it looks like a patternless Red Spotted Toad. They also are somewhat variable in appearance and sometimes lack the bright red spots. From what I've read there were 1 or 2 historical records of Arroyos at Whitewater but the...

Wow, you've outdone yourself with this one Lou!

Fantastic video and amazing find.

Nice finds.


I think your Toad is actually just a Western Toad (Anaxyrus boreas),
they can vary quite a bit in coloration/pattern.

Hopefully someones corrects me if I'm wrong about the Toad,
if that is in fact an Arroyo, that would be a very good find for that area.

Wow great pictures man.


The first Glossy shot is my favorite, also the habitat pics are really nice too

Looks like a nice day

SICCCKKKK finds....

Really cool that you saw 5 Coast Horned lizards in JT,
I heard that the drought was tough on the populations out there.

Porter wrote:Man, I am looking at those bright orange mites on the back legs of those collards

Mites?
Hmm, I figured those were just orange specks of coloration, similar to the markings near the collar.

Either way beautiful lizards and photographs!

That's a bummer about the cover boards Dave.
Also sad to hear this might have been the last survey at the Bypass.

The last Kingsnake with the golden bands is sweet!

Looks like a nice day, wish I could have made it.

Great post Zach!

Gotta love the red coach...

Very nice...

cool lyre snake!

This is cool.

I'll definitely try to make a few dates

Hey Dave,

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it up this year due to work and the Easter holiday.

Looks like the conditions should be pretty good for you guys, best of luck!

I'll keep an eye out for the highlights...

Also it must have been awesome to herp there before the windmills...

What a shame

Craig That's cool about Coasties near Cabazon, never thought to look for them there. Then again that whole transition area is really interesting, I've always wondered about how far certain desert species make it west toward Banning and how far certain coastal species make it east toward Palm Springs.

Hey Dave

Haha yeah I was wondering why I didn't see your name in the article.
I must have got Ellicott Slough confused with Elkhorn Slough...
You're still working at Elkhorn right?

Also glad to hear about the Yolo survey, really hope to make it again this year!

Mark

Nice work Dave

From what I know the Coasties that make it into the desert are associated with sagebrush,

I don't think they occur in creosote habitats.

Maybe just a big female...

Boa fever!

Dig the spadefoots too

Chrispherp wrote: Let's hope no one damages their vehicles

hahaha

Cool video Lou.

Nice brown bellied King

I don't recall ever finding a herp I moved off the road to be DOR later on. This happened to me last summer with a large(at least 8") adult Sonoran Desert toad. I definitely try to move herps a little further now if possible. *General rule of thumb: the cooler the herp, the further off the road I m...

That shot with the transparent Ensatina is really cool.

Well done!

Looks like I'll definitely be able to make it Mar 18 and Apr 9.

The 22nd is a maybe at this point, depends on my work schedule.

Looking forward to peeking under the AC laid out last year

...