Some habitat and herps

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simus343
Posts: 566
Joined: March 30th, 2014, 1:16 pm
Location: Okaloosa ca, Fla.

Some habitat and herps

Post by simus343 »

So I have decided I would do a post with habitat and herps to show what types of critters I find in what types of habitats. It isn't all inclusive as sometimes I will be out, find something, take my camera out, and find out my battery is dead. I will try to show some good representatives though, only covering each species once per habitat.
First off is the uplands of Okaloosa and Walton counties:

This particular image is of the most productive area I have ever found reptiles in Northwest Florida for both species diversity and number.
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This here is a little YoY Florida Pine Snake that I found this past Saturday at work while repairing the drift fence seen in the photograph. The fence has been there for 3.5 years and is still going!
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Yes, in a sandhill. The area was adjacent to a steephead ravine though. I love Agkistrodon piscovorous, especially when they make you think you found the first A. contortrix seen as far south in the county as I was.
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Have to love Box Turtles, especially when they are THIS yellow!
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I don't think there is any sandhill that I have been to that doesn't have Sistrurus miliarius barbouri
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Now people knowledged on Florida laws don't get worked up. I get to do this for work because we have to take photo documentation of every Gopherus polyphemus we see on some of our sites to keep track of their health. Luckily for this individual, she was not exhibiting any symptoms of a mystery illness that we are looking for.
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Heterodon platirhinos. I don't know where to begin to describe how much I love the Heterodon Genus.
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I have not got my hands on many Coachwhips, but they are pretty fast, and feisty too. You can see the blood on my thumb.
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Because of work I get to observe herps in a fashion that very few people can say that they are allowed to, prescribed burning. Many different animals rush onto burn lines and roads to escape the flames, allowing me to see many different types.
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Perhaps the king of herps for me, Crotalus adamanteus.
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Now, the wetlands:
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First off I'll start with Amphibians that I have photographed. Sadly, I have no salamander photos to show for it, or any at all as I go through all my pictures. Consequently I am now on a mission to re-find all species of salamanders that I have seen to get some good photo documentation of them. I did it! I swear!
So, here are frogs.
Most Cricket Frogs I don't photograph, but I was down on my luck one day while herping and saw this little guy poking his head out from this Angiosperm (its not a moss, it flowers).
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By the way, can anyone ID the plant? Here is a picture of the flower.
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I live right on a swamp, so here is arguably the most common frog in the southeast, drum roll please, Hyla cinerea!
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So as I'm going through my photographs, I really need to photograph amphibians more often!

Onto the reptiles.
This little 2013 YoY Agkistrodon piscovorous had quite a funny story around it.
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A kid visiting where I work pointed at a co-worker and said "There is a snake next to you!" The co-worker, having a Grey Rat Snake wrapped around him acted a fake surprised reaction out and said something like "So there is!" while referring to the Rat Snake. The kid then said "No! By your foot!" and pointed to a baby Cottonmouth next to my co-worker's foot :lol:.

This little Florida Red Belly Snake I flipped under a piece of wood that was about 5 inches long and 2 inches wide. Goes to show that even the little stuff works!
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I got this Nerodia fasciata fasciata as a rescue from my mom. She picked it up from a man up the street and called me to tell me she had a snake for me to release. Needless to say I was happy as in that neighborhood, many snakes meet their end at the tip of a shovel.
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Now, I'm breaking my rule about one per species per habitat, but the colors on this Nerodia fasciata fasciata are out-standing in my opinion. Sadly, the snake was not alive when it was found, someone had intentionally run off the road to kill it.
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I haven't seen the occupant of these next pictures in a few years, I'm hoping he/she just moved on instead of being hunted, so I fancied myself a closer look into this Alligator Hovel.
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It went deeper, just not that my arm length could reach my camera to show. Not to mention I'm a little on edge about Black Widow bites.

And to wrap up this post, a male Loggerhead Musk Turtle that was caught in a crayfish trap this past Friday. It was found in the same trap along with a female Loggerhead Musk Turtle. Obviously they were both removed and released back into the creek branch they were found in.
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Well I hope you all enjoyed this post, feel free to comment on it and if a comment happens to be a tip or two for winter salamandering (moles and marbled specifically) that would be greatly appreciated ;).
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dery
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by dery »

simus343 wrote: Yes, in a sandhill. The area was adjacent to a steephead ravine though. I love Agkistrodon piscovorous, especially when they make you think you found the first A. contortrix seen as far south in the county as I was.
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I get a bit excited when I see such a cottonmouth, here's my favorate such find: http://www.naherp.com/photo.php?v_id=244015
It glowed like an EDB.
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Noah M
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by Noah M »

I like the pine snake. :thumb:
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Josh Holbrook
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by Josh Holbrook »

captainjack0000 wrote:I like the pine snake. :thumb:
King of the Sandhill!
simus343
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by simus343 »

captainjack0000 wrote:I like the pine snake. :thumb:
Certainly made my day to find it. The day started so cold that all I thought I would be doing is digging, hammering, and stapling all day - had not the slightest thought I would see any snake, let alone a pine. I figure hammering stakes into the ground scared it out of a burrow that it may have been hiding in. Hmmm, could grunting for snakes be a new method of herping to try and use :lol:.
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BillMcGighan
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by BillMcGighan »

Nice habitat shots and associations, Nick. :thumb:


Hmmm, could grunting for snakes be a new method of herping to try and use :lol:.
There could be something to this under the right conditions.

I found that if a ratsnake is just sticking its head out a hole in a tree, scratching hard on the opposite side often brings them out.

In another very different environment, I actually considered trying "grunting". 2 of the 3 Grayband Kings I've found (over the course of 30 years), were on nights when thunder could be felt very close, but the storms had not hit, and even passed by.

One of the common names for Eastern Chain Kings and Mole Kings in parts of the rural south is "Thunder Snake"

A normally ordinary road in VA once became über productive on 4 or 5 evenings when a new road, closely parallel (maybe 100 yards) to the first, was being cut through the forest by heavy equipment.
simus343
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Joined: March 30th, 2014, 1:16 pm
Location: Okaloosa ca, Fla.

Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by simus343 »

BillMcGighan wrote:Nice habitat shots and associations, Nick. :thumb:

One of the common names for Eastern Chain Kings and Mole Kings in parts of the rural south is "Thunder Snake"

A normally ordinary road in VA once became über productive on 4 or 5 evenings when a new road, closely parallel (maybe 100 yards) to the first, was being cut through the forest by heavy equipment.
Thanks, and I'll have to try checking such areas. I know of a road construction site currently being worked on, I'll try checking it out during warm days to see if the clearing and vehicles are stirring anything up. About how many days did it take after construction began before these 4-5 evenings that you speak of started to occur? I ask because if it was right away my area is a few months too late :?. It would be nice to see a Eastern King in Okaloosa county, a lot of the herpers I know here havn't seen any in years, none of them were taking them either, so they say, as none of them had interest in kings besides finding them. None are turning up DOR or on "look at what I killed" facebook posts either. It is wierd because we have mole kings and scarlet kings, just not Eastern/Chain and so far it seems Ophidiomyces isn't in the area either.
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JakeScott
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by JakeScott »

Great post. Not enough people share the animals with their habitats.

That box turtle is truly a stunner.

-Jake
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BillMcGighan
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by BillMcGighan »

About how many days did it take after construction began before these 4-5 evenings that you speak of started to occur?
Looked like they had just started work; maybe 2 -4 days.

Same thing happened to us in '99 over near Wewahitchka. The significance in the finds in both occasions was the animals were several species and a variety of ages. This is as opposed to adult breeding and egg laying migrations or YOY new hatch migrations.


All the Eastern Kings I've seen in your Xeric neck of the woods were male, springtime DORS and always killed at a bridge or culvert (H20).
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FloridaSerpent
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by FloridaSerpent »

You lucky son of a gun! Two species can't wait to encounter are Coachwhips and Hognoses. Guess I have to travel north to get lucky enough. Great finds man.
simus343
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Re: Some habitat and herps

Post by simus343 »

FloridaSerpent wrote:You lucky son of a gun! Two species can't wait to encounter are Coachwhips and Hognoses. Guess I have to travel north to get lucky enough. Great finds man.
Thanks. To help you in your search for those snakes, as I know your looking for tips via another thread, Coachwhips seem more elusive than one would expect, and tend to be more active in hot weather, I don't mean warm, I mean hot. Most of the ones I have seen have been in July and August, mid-day and afternoon, on days where temps exceed 95 Fahrenheit. Coachwhips can be found S and SE of the Naples area, at least they use to. A co-worker of mine grew up many years ago south of Naples and would find Coachwhips in semi-suburban areas.

For Eastern Hognose this is a species of great interest to me. It is difficult to explain their behavior, to me they seem a non-reclusive, reclusive snake, or reclusive with a tendency to wander. Basically, off the trail they tend to move under leaf litter and dense grasses to get from A-B, without exposing themselves to birds, foxes, etc. They seem to spend a lot of time in areas that are very sandy, very open (tree cover but very sparse tree cover) grasslands, adjacent to water sources where toads will breed. Basically what all the books say. They tend to like cooler, mild, weather though, in the 70s. If you know of any sandy areas, I'd get out and check on a warm winter day or when spring comes. Early spring is when I find the most in North Florida.
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