Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
Aneides Aeneus
Posts: 47
Joined: November 15th, 2014, 8:54 am
Location: Lexington, KY

Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Aneides Aeneus »

Hello everyone,

My name is Ananth Miller-Murthy. I am a high school kid from Lexington, Kentucky, and I have been interested in herping for the past 10 years or so. I have read posts on this forum for a while, so I have finally decided to post. This is basically a summary of my year (I omitted some of the less interesting species):

Pretty much throughout the winter and early spring we got out as often as possible, and found some common bluegrass region stream salamanders. This year for the first time we began reliably finding spring salamanders, which I am pretty happy about! :D

Two-lined salamander, northern dusky salamander, spring salamander, and streamside salamander:
Image

Another common bluegrass stream herp - the pickerel frog:
Image

In late March we took a trip down to the Chattanooga area. The weather wasn't ideal, but we still saw some pretty cool stuff:

Brownback salamander - it isn't evident in this photo, but the body shape is pretty different from that of the two-lined salamander. Also, the larvae are almost as large as the adults!
Image

Fence lizard:
Image

First ringneck of the year:
Image

First racer of the year. My dad seems to have a magical bond with racers - he has caught quite a few, but has never been bitten!
Image

Pigeon mountain salamander:
Image

Upland chorus frog:
Image

Mountain chorus frog:
Image

Interesting habitat - within the frame of this photo, we found green, slimy, dusky, and red salamanders, as well as the mountain chorus frog above.
Image

As spring progressed, a few more herps began coming out:

Jefferson's salamander - we saw 2 of these this year, both while flipping tin:
Image

Snapping turtle:
Image

Longtail salamander:
Image

Red eft:
Image

Water snake:
Image

Rat snake:
Image

Milk snake:
Image

In early April we spent a weekend at Snake Road - maybe a bit too early in the year, but we still saw some common species, and some interesting small snakes.

Ribbon snake:
Image

Red-bellied snake - until this trip I had only seen 4 in my life. We found 3 or 4 in one day at Snake Road.
Image

Juvenile cottonmouth:
Image

At a nearby spot in southern Illinois, we found 7 cottonmouths sunning in one small pile of rocks:
Image

Smallmouth salamander eating a worm - I love seeing bits of the herps' natural lives like this:
Image

We drove up to Canada for a weekend to join my grandparents for some birdwatching. Incedentally, we saw a couple of herps.

Five-lined skink:
Image

Painted turtle:
Image

Herp weekend this year ended up being more salamander-oriented due to colder, wet weather. We saw some interesting species, including green, red, spring, and other salamanders, and some calling frogs.

A nice spring:
Image

Gray treefrog:
Image

Spring peeper:
Image

We spent a day in Western Kentucky flipping tin, and found some species of snakes which we rarely see, as well as some more common species.

We found several copperheads:
Image

Lifer prairie kingsnake:
Image

This hognose snake was a huge sucess for Nigel Smith, who was with us:
Image

Over memorial day weekend, we went camping in Pennsylvania. We found some common salamanders we don't see often in Kentucky, such as mountain duskies, redbacks, and northern two-lines, but the real highlight of the trip was stumbling upon this den of 5 timber rattlesnakes on a talus slope:
Image

After school ended in May, we spent a week in the great smoky mountains area. We found the usual red-cheeked, pigmy, blue-ridge two-lined, ocoee, and imitator salamanders. However, we also spent some time south of the smokies, where we found some interesting stuff, including tellico, red-legged, shovel-nosed, and seepage salamanders, and a hatchling hellbender! We also found some snakes, which we usually don't see a lot of in that area. Unfortunately, for some reason my photos for most of the trip turned out horribly, so I only have a couple of photos to show.

Tellico salamander:
Image

See if you can spot the copperhead, water snake, and garter snake in this photo (the water and the garter are pretty obscured):
Image

Brown snake found in a powerline cut above 4000 feet in elevation:
Image

In June and early July, we spent time herping both in the bluegrass region and the cumberland plateau of Kentucky. We also spent a day in the cave region.

Opaque corn snake:
Image

Timber:
Image

Map turtle:
Image

Garter snakes can be very common in the bluegrass region under tin:
Image

We found this black kingsnake right next to a box turtle. Later when we passed by again, it had return to the same spot, and had scraped away some dirt, revealing some turtle eggs, which it seemed to be trying to eat!
Image

Cumberland plateau salamander - this species can be pretty common in cool, moist, hemlock-wooded stream valleys:
Image

One of the most memorable days of my year was spent in a stream on the cumberland plateau - we found a total of 244 salamanders of 9 species, including green, cave, longtail, seal, two-lined, northern dusky, slimy, black mountain dusky, and red salamanders. We must have come at exactly the right time of year, because we saw a total of 26 red salamanders that had just gone through metamorphosis in the stream!

Black mountain dusky:
Image

Cave salamander:
Image

Green salamander - my favorite animal ever:
Image

One of the red salamander metamorphs:
Image

Within the frame of this photo, we found 7 red salamander metamorphs, as well as seal and two-lined salamanders:
Image

After that, we spent about a month in Aspen, Colorado. We spent some time herping on the way there in Kansas and Missouri, and we did some herping in the great basin region of Colorado. We got a ton of help during this trip from several people, including Dan Krull, Tim Warfel, and Wayne Brekhus. Thanks to everyone who helped us - we probably wouldn't have found anything without them. Anyway, here are some highlights, in no particular order.

Prarie rattler:
Image

Horned lizard:
Image

Boreal chorus frog:
Image

Midget-faded rattlesnake:
Image

Plateau lizard:
Image

Collared lizard - very colorful and photogenic:
Image

Side-blotched lizard:
Image

Plateau-striped whiptail
Image

Canyon treefrog - found on a bare boulder in the blazing sun:
Image

Tiger whiptail:
Image

A very angry plains garter snake:
Image

Lined snake:
Image

Great plains rat snake:
Image

Sagebrush lizard:
Image

My favorite herp of the trip - striped whipsnake:
Image

Tiger salamander:
Image

Massasauga:
Image

Back in Kentucky, we were able to go herping a couple of times in the bluegrass and cumberland plateau before the snakey weather ended.

Queen and water snakes:
Image

Rough green snake - although supposedly common, this is the only one I have seen anywhere other than snake road:
Image

Nigel with the rough green:
Image

Mountain dusky salamander - this salamander seems to have a very scattered distribution in eastern Kentucky:
Image

Milk snake:
Image

Box turtle found under tin:
Image

Another milk:
Image

In fall, we took another trip down to the southern appalachians, this time to northern Georgia. We were given a bunch of help on this trip by Carlos Camp, which I am very thankful for.

Dwarf black-bellied salamander:
Image

A pretty seepage salamander:
Image

Chattahoochie slimy and blue ridge two-lined salamanders - the two-lined really glowed like that in real life:
Image

Patch-nosed salamander - a very unique, tiny species:
Image

Three-lined salamander:
Image

Atlantic coast slimy salamander - oddly enough, this species has an arm of its range that extends up to the foot of the mountains:
Image

Spotted dusky salamander:
Image

In October we had quite a bit of luck with salamanders back in Kentucky, particularly some vernal pond species.

Spotted salamander:
Image

Marbled salamander:
Image

Four-toed salamander - we found a couple of these just crawling around in the open in a thick floodplain forest:
Image

Mud salamander - these guys seem to be very rare and unpredictable in terms of habitat in our region:
Image

Longtail:
Image

A nice red from eastern KY:
Image

A quick trip up to Ohio for birdwatching produced some redback salamanders:
Image
Does anyone know if those are redback eggs in the photo above? Although we only found about 10 salamanders (it was pretty cold), we found about 100 of these egg clumps.

Back in Kentucky, cooler temperatures brought out some other species of salamanders.

An interestingly-colored northern zigzag:
Image

A nice big spring salamander:
Image

Streamside:
Image

Ravine salamander:
Image

Over chrinstmas break, we went to Brownsville Texas. We were there primarily to go birdwatching with my grandparents, but we were really hoping to find some cool snakes. Unfortunately, the temperatures were not in our favor (It never got above 70 degrees while we were there), but we still saw some cool stuff. On this trip, I thank Gus Rentfro, Seth Patterson, and Mike Pingleton for giving us advice on where to go.

Yellow mud turtle:
Image

Rio grande leopard frog:
Image

A very cold texas tortoise:
Image

Texas spiny lizard:
Image

Patch-nosed snake:
Image

Texas banded gecko:
Image

My favorite herp of the trip - texas night snake:
Image
This snake did a really cool display, where it would wind its self up into a spiral-shaped coil. Has anyone else ever seen that?

Gulf coast toad:
Image

Rio grande chirping frog (and a leopard frog in the background) - these guys were really common under logs in the forests bordering wetlands.
Image

Four-lined skink - a very pretty animal:
Image

Great plains narrow-mouthed frog (I refuse to call it a toad):
Image

This green anole needed some coffee:
Image

Another very groggy lizard - a texas spotted whiptail:
Image

So that was my year. We had a great time, and saw a bunch of stuff we had never seen before, as well as many old friends. Happy 2015 everyone!

-Ananth.
User avatar
Noah M
Posts: 2293
Joined: November 3rd, 2012, 7:00 pm
Location: Gainesville, FL
Contact:

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Noah M »

Great diversity!!!
User avatar
soulsurvivor
Posts: 530
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:09 am
Location: NE Florida
Contact:

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by soulsurvivor »

Nice post, and welcome! Your salamanders are fabulous!!

~Bree
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by BillMcGighan »

:thumb: :thumb:
Very nice post, Ananth. (It's almost infinite! :) ;) )

Welcome and we hope to see more in the future.
User avatar
Jason B
Posts: 525
Joined: July 30th, 2010, 11:48 am
Location: KY: Woodford Co.

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Jason B »

Excellent post! That's a good looking little diastictus. I haven't seen Streamside and Spring salamanders at the same locale, yet.

What county was the first salamander you have labeled as a Longtailed from?

-Jb
User avatar
Aneides Aeneus
Posts: 47
Joined: November 15th, 2014, 8:54 am
Location: Lexington, KY

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Aneides Aeneus »

Thanks for the comments everyone. That first longtail was from the pallisades in northern madison county. It looks a bit like a cave from the picture, but there was a distinct pattern of spots on the tail in real life, so I'm pretty confident it's a longtail.

-Ananth.
User avatar
JakeScott
Posts: 690
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 5:26 pm
Location: Gainesville, FL
Contact:

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by JakeScott »

You get around quite a bit; especially for a "high school kid". I know old people that haven't seen some of those critters...awesome! Amazing year and diversity.

-Jake
User avatar
mtratcliffe
Posts: 533
Joined: January 19th, 2014, 4:34 pm
Location: Mt Laurel, NJ

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by mtratcliffe »

What Jake said - you had a great year, and I'm impressed by your knowledge. Welcome to the forums!
User avatar
Aneides Aeneus
Posts: 47
Joined: November 15th, 2014, 8:54 am
Location: Lexington, KY

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Aneides Aeneus »

Thanks guys - I certainly did have an awesome year (the best yet by far). My parents are very considerate to take me to all of the herping spots. This year I am hoping to to attend more group trips, such as the conecuh indigo search, and the spring trip.

-Ananth.
User avatar
Matt S.
Posts: 32
Joined: October 28th, 2012, 3:49 pm
Location: Crestview, FL

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Matt S. »

Great post, I really liked the diversity and always enjoy salamander heavy posts. I am pretty jealous of the pigeon mt., green and hellbender, still haven't checked those off of my list.

I think that the egg clusters with the redback are from some kind of gastropod. Not sure if they are snails or slugs.
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by BillMcGighan »

Guess I missed this:
Does anyone know if those are redback eggs in the photo above?
I think that the egg clusters with the redback are from some kind of gastropod. Not sure if they are snails or slugs.
I vote slugs.
On my salamander board line, sals are 19 out of 20 times, between the boards, occasionally with inverts like slugs.


Image



The slugs, like this banana slug, always lay their eggs at the soil level.
These are eggs and mama/papa (hermaphrodites) guaranteeing reinforcements to threaten my tomato plants!


Image
User avatar
Aneides Aeneus
Posts: 47
Joined: November 15th, 2014, 8:54 am
Location: Lexington, KY

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Aneides Aeneus »

Thanks for the input - I guess those were probably slug eggs then. I had assumed that they were salamander eggs because I have seen redback salamanders and other plethodontids (such as the weller's salamander) guarding egg clumps that are pretty similar to those, even though these eggs were unguarded.

Am I interepreting your statement correctly, that most of the salamanders you find at your board site are between layers of boards, and not beneath the bottom layer?

-Ananth.
User avatar
umop apisdn
Posts: 395
Joined: June 13th, 2010, 6:06 pm

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by umop apisdn »

Good stuff! That first longtail salamander looks funky. That's an aberrant individual, right?
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by BillMcGighan »

Ananth
Am I interepreting your statement correctly, that most of the salamanders you find at your board site are between layers of boards, and not beneath the bottom layer?
You'll find lots of activity on the forum about board lines, but they are almost always primarily for snakes; usually in dryer "edge habitat".

My board line is for salamanders. We live on the "wet side" of the mountains.
Many sals in the se mountains live inside the downed, rotten logs, more than just under them. I used plywood panels that have grooves on one side (common at building supplies.)

They don't have to be big sheets. Some of my stacks are 4 or 5, 6" X 24" piles. The piles provide a variable level of humidity and temp.

Important - these are all placed in the shaded areas of forest, not edge or in open.

So, yes, most sals are found between the boards and only rarely underneath.



Image


Image


Image


Of course, occasionally other herps take advantage of this as well!
Image
User avatar
Aneides Aeneus
Posts: 47
Joined: November 15th, 2014, 8:54 am
Location: Lexington, KY

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Aneides Aeneus »

That longtail was pretty wierd - the spots seemed more large and random than usual.

Thanks for the information about your boards! I would never have expected them to prefer being between boards. That makes me want to lay out boards somewhere moist in Kentucky and see if it holds true. Out of curiosity, do you ever find semi-aquatic salamanders such as springs or reds at your board lines (that is, if you have boards layed out close to a stream)?

-Ananth.
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by BillMcGighan »

Out of curiosity, do you ever find semi-aquatic salamanders such as springs or reds at your board lines (that is, if you have boards layed out close to a stream)?
Not this particular line, but boards half in and half out of water work well; they just don't last long.
User avatar
kevin h
Posts: 99
Joined: January 18th, 2015, 3:04 pm

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by kevin h »

Great photos Ananth! Seems like you had some really good diversity last year. :D
User avatar
Nigel Smith
Posts: 268
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 10:52 am
Location: Lexington Kentucky

Re: Intorduction and End of the Year Post 2014

Post by Nigel Smith »

Cool post Ananth! 8-)
Jason B wrote:Excellent post! That's a good looking little diastictus. I haven't seen Streamside and Spring salamanders at the same locale, yet.

What county was the first salamander you have labeled as a Longtailed from?

-Jb
That first longtail appears to be an individual from our trip to Walker County GA. Which is an intergrade zone with three lined salamanders.
Post Reply