Herpin from 4/9 and 4/10 pictures!

[Joey Kennedy]

I went herpin in the App mountains in NC, it was beautiful and I scored big time!!!
Here are some of the many pics I took

4/9/12
Started out the day with a Red Spotted Newt!


Nice little Dusky


Larvae



Found a young bullfrog.



Other critters




2 Lined Salamander



Hahah i ran out in the stream with my dipnet after a school of foot long fish.. i got one


Dead Water Snake



A very cool Red Spotted newt later that evening!



Okay had a good night sleep and ready to start a new day!
4/10/12

Fence Lizards before the hike!



I spy a lil Seal Salamander!


A beautiful 2 Lined Salamander



Pickerel Frog I found under a rock


I found a very very odd salamander, I have no clue what it is. Please tell me if you know!



Dusky of some sort


Red backed Salamander, had to use flash to make it look good because it was half in water.



A Yellow Mountain Dusky



Black Ring Snake


Found a pretty big Slimy salamander not anywhere near water. haha



Gross.... my hand was 2 inches from this...


Found a very small Worm Snake, i legit thought it was a worm at first.. now i understand the name



Surpisingly, I found another Slimy Salamander, again, no where near water! It was only about an inch and a half. Very small!!!



To wrap it all up I found a Skink! Great 2 days i'd say!


Had a great 2 days! Please comment and tell me what you think!!!

[brick911]

Good finds. Slimies are woodland sals. You shouldn't be finding them in water like you would with duskies and two-lineds. ...If that's what you meant. Keep it up and good luck the rest of the year.

[will lattea]

Caves and rocky crevices are good for slimeys as well. Your red-back is actually a dusky- most likely a mountain dusky of some sort, and I think some of your other duskies are either seals or mountain duskies (the odd one looks like a mountain dusky)... Red-backs are in the genus Plethodon and are generally found in the woods and along streams- but not so much in them. Duskies are in the genus Desmognathus and can be tough to ID from that region. There are tons of little brown salamanders in the streams up there and there will most likely be new species described in the future. Good pics of their tails, feet, and grooves on their sides can help you ID later on with the help of a field guide. The first blurry little snake in the water looks like a queen snake too- if you don't know about them look them up- they only eat freshly sloughed crayfish and are really cool! If you already like getting out in the field, grab some local field guides and they'll help you identify animals and learn to zero in on the habitat they utilize.



-will

[Chris Smith]

Cool stuff! The frog looks like a juvenile bullfrog to me.

Happy Herpin'
Chris

[Joey Kennedy]

Duskies are in the genus Desmognathus and can be tough to ID from that region. There are tons of little brown salamanders in the streams up there and there will most likely be new species described in the future.
-will

when i say dusky i mean "Desmognathus" most of the time hahah just 'dusky' is shorter to type and i think most Desmognathus are duskies, but thank you. I do disagree about ur input on the red backed, i studied it over pretty closely at the scene and im pretty sure its a red back, it was out of the water at first, and i had to wash it with the stream water so i could take a picture thats why it was in the stream

[will lattea]

Right on... wasn't the water that made me think it's a dusky. Just trying to be helpful. Study a field guide and see if you still disagree

[Joey Kennedy]

Right on... wasn't the water that made me think it's a dusky. Just trying to be helpful. Study a field guide and see if you still disagree

I do see what you mean in some aspects, like the markings on the back. but the head was very rounded and not pointy like most duskies. But i'm only 18 so im sure i have much to learn...
Thank you for ur imput!