Field Herp Forum

My assumption is that it really depends on the weather and the particular place the board is laying. I aim for morning but I don't actually have any proof that's better, and actually my best flipping sequence ever (10 snakes of 6 species in 1 hour including a rosy and a tantilla) was quite late in t...

Wrote this more than a year ago but life kept getting in the way of posting it. Finding the various West Coast garters has been a big goal of mine for a while. But it still took me by surprise when I suddenly realized - hey, I've got almost all of them! I had nailed several long-awaited finds during...

You are too nice, that guy would have got mouth from me, which would have included "mind your own business." Furthermore, if this is a state park or reserve, what is he doing picking up wildlife, not to mention chucking them over hillsides. If this is your scariest experience so far, they can be a ...

Oh, I myself do the VAST majority of my herping alone. I could literally list out every time I've ever herped with another herper. But I did learn a ton from those times especially at the beginning when I didn't even know what "flipping a hill" was, and he was asking specifically how to find people.

Awesome thanks for the response. Do you have any tips for connecting with local herpers that will take me out with them? I don't really know any. I am concerned I will come off like I am just wanted to steal their spots. which is not the case. 100% of my connections came through this forum and NAFH...

Amazing night Lou! During my year in Bangkok I didn't have anyone else to herp with or show me the spots and didn't know where to go at night (plus work generally kept me from being out past evening anyway), I had no idea there were places that you could be that prolific! Poor target acquisition on ...

I'm quite in awe of the species you find and the pictures you take. Thank you very much Kurt.

I would very much love to find a crocodile newt one day. Even seeing a picture of a salamander larvae in Asia was a bit of a shock to the system. I really miss them.

Incredible to see two Trachischium species, even dead. I have hoped to find those in the Indian foothills of the Himalayas and haven't been lucky yet.

* Read a lot, especially herper accounts and scientific papers (field guides are somewhat less useful for actually finding herps). Just to contradict that point, californiaherps.com can be extremely helpful for understanding the exact habits and habitats of various herps * Go out on trips with more ...

A 5-species day is incredible in Oregon any time of year, but particularly in November.

Which Claremont campus are you at? I'm a HMC and CGU grad. You might already know, but Stephen Mahoney, a biology professor at HMC, is into herpetology and if you talk to him you might be able to accompany some outings whether or not you're actually part of his class/research group. I haven't found ...

In the ‘50s, ‘60s, and early ‘70s our own animal importers were as bad. I remember going to several importers (like Bill Chase and Ray Singleton) in ’69 to see 3 foot piles of baby boas (about $3.00 each) where the healthiest were at the top of the pile. The bottom layer were dead. Same for Florida...

Yeah, Gonyosoma is often considered a common snake but in my experience it isn't. Although it's a rather slow snake and should be easy to spot at night, this is the second I have seen! Agreed, I've only ever seen 2 as I recall (not including several DOR specimens), but I put that down to not lookin...

As one compendium example: that for the Mojave National Preserve prohibits the collection of herps pursuant to a California fishing license. This prohibition negates the statement made earlier in this thread that you can herp in the Preserve just as you would on other public land. I expect that han...

I can only answer on california regulations. Yes, a California fishing license is exactly what you need to handle non-protected species. Protected species (such as the desert tortoise) cannot be handled no matter what you have. The Mojave National Preserve doesn't have any special protections in tha...

Wow thanks.. glad you keep detailed notes. ;) You make me happy again. I am not used to seeing reptiles daily and I have had several holidays where i saw only one or two snakes in 3 weeks. So if i find half the stuff you saw in 2 days back in 2008 i will be extremely happy. I have for instance neve...

I'm looking at my notes from a 2008 trip I took there that same time of year. Back then I knew almost nothing about desert herping, I'd been to the Mojave maybe twice before but just poking around, no one had ever shown me what to do and I'd almost never road-cruised in my life. 9am on July 25th arr...

Ted Daehnke, Lowell's field assistant on the snakes for three years, is my dad. I think he would have started right near the back end of when you were there, either '75 or '76. Lauren Zabrowski, the intern park ranger at SRBPNCA for one of those summers, is my mom. They met in the preserve and got m...

I've had great trips to the Mojave that same time of year. If everything is new to you you'll have a blast. Early morning is the best, personally I'd aim for lizards on the dunes and maybe if you're lucky a tortoise or a rattler. Chucks and some other lizards and maybe a coachwhip can be out even in...

Totally off topic Jack, but if you've been in Idaho since 1971, were you crossing paths with Lowell Diller or anyone else at the SRBPNCA in the 1970s?

On one hand this might be old news for everyone else. On the other hand I might have details completely wrong. But this is what I think I've just learned. When I was a kid, the snake families were easy. You had colubrids, which were just about everything (especially if you lived in Oregon). Then you...

Great post. I won't admit to leaving the boa there for you.

My friend Matt disturbed a cougar in a den while doing surveys in the Cascades a couple weeks ago. Never even saw her, just got some significantly nasty snarls and chose not to investigate further.

Thank you for mentioning Nate's Southern Alligator Lizard, I knew about it but omitted it in error. Multnomah County is tough for reptiles. I have a couple spots for Northern Alligator Lizard, otherwise I haven't done any better than you. I am aware of reported localities still producing fence lizar...

Matt Dagrosa and I are doing a long-term survey project in NW Oregon and are looking for some information about the area. We've compiled a fairly good database of sightings, but are still specifically interested in finding information regarding any of the following. Anyone who has herped the area, o...

Even if they aren't "highly sought after", we frown on giving specific locales in order to set a consistent standard. This is the internet, absolutely anyone can see the post. It only takes one unethical person to really mess up an area. All of us are aware of multiple sites in California that have ...

And finally the conclusion. Part 5 is from a conservationist perspective, leading with the Giant Garter Snakes that are dying out in California, the Oregon Spotted Frogs that are already gone, and whether we can do anything to preserve the future for all of them. California Waters: What Can Be Resto...

If you counted subspecies, I could do a half day, SF Bay Area 5 snake slam: 1. Thamnophis elegans terrestris 2. Thamnophis atratus atratus 3. Thamnophis atratus zaxanthus 4. Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis 5. Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia If you took a full day, you could do 4 species, 9 sub slam ...

Just because... the one second mini-slam exists (3 species). :mrgreen: https://live.staticflickr.com/958/42224683722_1fee7d6666_b.jpg Nice! I got the mini-slam on a Canadian island last summer. T. ordinoides and T. sirtalis pickeringii together and then T. elegans vagrans 40 minutes later. I think ...

Breaking with the strong consensus, I have someone who thinks that Garter #6 is a Coast Garter Snake Thamnophis elegans terrestris, rather than a Valley Garter Snake (T. sirtalis fitchi). The red is on the scales and irregular on the sides of the body, rather between the scales or bleeding out of th...

I've made 2-4 trips to the gorge per year over the last 4 years and I try and spend some of that time looking for Z's out of range in northern Oregon. The great tri-color wild goose chase! I think the Mosier/Dalles/Hood River areas still could be a possibility, however I have not heard of any new Z...

Ernie, Scott has asked that I not bite on your efforts to derail this site, and I agree. So I will debunk the ridiculous claim you just made, so people get an understanding of what level of references you're working with and how poorly you check the veracity of the things you post on this subject. S...

I usually root for the herp but some of these evasions are incredible. A couple of the strikes looked like they might have landed but the rat survived if I'm reading correctly. I think it one case it looks like the rattler may even have gotten his lower teeth onto the rat and still got kicked off in...

Oh, and the look on your face up there with the corn Proves that there is no such thing as an unbeautiful or uninteresting snake. Proof. Right There. There's actually a beautiful story behind that corn too. If I remember right, that snake is one my dad had hatched himself from an egg long before I ...

Since we had come all the way to Manila, after the conferences we ended our trip with a few days at a retreat center that I had been to once before and enjoyed immensely. This time we were able to take Sophia on hikes through real hills in a rural area. This was mama's chance to go hiking with us to...

So a week after that, we went to Manila for a series of conferences and meetings. Lucky for us, the conference bordered a bit of jungle. I'll eventually post the full herping report somewhere else (far better than I expected!), but for now just a few with Sophia. On the third day Sophia and I took a...

This small town is nestled on the banks of Chambal River, which is probably the cleanest river in India. According to ancient Indian texts, the river is considered to be cursed. It is believed that the river originated from the blood of thousands of cows sacrificed by the Aryan King Rantideva. Anot...

I think you've always done what you thought was right Don.

Spending time in the outdoors and with herps from a young age is a family tradition for me. 2.jpg 4.jpg I took baby Sophia out on a couple of short herping outings during the first few weeks of her life, but she wasn't really old enough to take in anything (and slept through most of the good finds)....

The story of how Chambal stayed clean and relatively undeveloped is crazy. On one hand, there's a myth that a large number of cows were sacrificed in the river, thereby poisoning the waters and making them unclean, so many people didn't want to have anything to do with them. On the other hand, a hug...

I and many others put an incredible amount of work into that project, literally thousands of hours of my life, partly in trust of Don's explicit promise that NAHERP would stay up as long as he was still alive. I don't regret that time, I had a lot of fun and NAHERP already did some good, but I still...

The newest installment is up. A bit more researcher and conservationist stuff in this one. http://www.livingalongsidewildlife.com/2019/02/california-waters-frogs-of-frozen.html https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VrqZYu24Uak/XGCOZ0owr5I/AAAAAAAAHpM/FaB-UiY-nsI2arb8yJGhvaf50kb3uGKpACLcBGAs/s1600/kings%2Bcanyo...

But here's my best one...from Mount Abu in southern Rajasthan. Here's the account of the encounter which I wrote up the very night it happened. I head out at 8:15pm to herp a trail which I’d already scouted/herped from 4-7:30pm earlier in the day. Though the trailhead starts right on the edge of a m...

Pretty much all my best no-photo stories involve mammals. I was doing field work in Bangladesh trying to collect data on frogs alone in a flooded fallow field at night. The area was devoid of large predators so my only safety concern was wild boar, with which I'd already had several uncomfortable en...

All of these come from when I had a pretty poor camera and didn't know how to take good pictures either, but if you don't have options maybe one will suffice? I might be able to get a higher res version that what is displaying here. http://www.naherp.com/vouchers/44224-51528.jpg http://www.naherp.co...

Fantastic species and even more fantastic in-situ shots!

I really, really love the non-posed shots that show what they're doing when they're just doing their thing.

I'm not an expert, but, uh, that's a stripe?

Didn't even give me time to answer. I've never seen a minor, but those toes would have been HUGE for nigriventris. I've distinguished other slenders from nigriventris with less toe size difference than that, so I was decently confident in that one.

Incredible narrative! I especially love your description of finding Inyo Mountains salamanders - they have always intrigued me! -Ananth Thank you! I would have loved to provide even more detail, but its been a constant balancing act between writing an engaging enough narrative to draw attention to ...