Coralfest.

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

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Josh Young
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Coralfest.

Post by Josh Young »

September was my best month of the year this year, started it off with finding the ANF mole king followed by some other cool stuff. September was also my best month for coral snakes since moving from SoFla where I use to find coral snakes in abundance. Last year, my first year moving back up to SoWeGa I only came across 4 corals the entire year in ANF, and this year I'm at around a dozen, half of those just from September alone.

Around mid-September I went to a well known area in NoFla hoping for simus but instead turned up a coral snake, after around 7 hours of seeing nothing.

ImageEastern coral snake. by Josh Young, on Flickr

ImageEastern coral snake. by Josh Young, on Flickr

ImageEastern coral snake. by Josh Young, on Flickr

A few nights later I was back in ANF chasing mole kings again, and bumped into Jake Scott and his friend. The next morning I spent the first couple of hours after sunrise chasing mole kings still, as well as maybe hoping for a hognose, king, diamondback, or pine. I didn't see anything but did take a few nice photos of the sunrise.

ImageSunrise in Apalachicola National Forest. by Josh Young, on Flickr

ImageApalachicola National Forest. by Josh Young, on Flickr

I left that area and went a few miles back up north to cruise a road that's notorious for pines, a few minutes after turning onto it I came across a brute of a coral snake just coming on to the road. A big healthy female.

ImageEastern coral snake. by Josh Young, on Flickr

A week later I went back to the area in NoFla for simus with a buddy of mine from Alabama, I was hoping for hognose, and he was hoping for his lifer coral, which we missed getting the night before in ANF when we found a fresh hit coral DOR. It was overcast, mildly warm, and had intermittent drizzling, so I told him he had a good chance for his lifer coral. An hour or so passed of not seeing anything and being fooled by countless sticks and pieces of bark, one of the sticks started shooting across the road. It was a coral snake. An average sized female crossing from a residence to untouched land.

ImageEastern coral snake. by Josh Young, on Flickr

ImageEastern coral snake. by Josh Young, on Flickr

We went to the end of the road and on our next pass down towards the other end, we got another, smaller coral shooting across the road. A small male that was completely determined to just get away from us and get off the road, so we didn't keep him from that for long. I haven't found more than a coral in a day since I moved from SoFla so it was nice. My buddy was also pretty happy, to go from only being able to get a few DORs over the last couple years to finding two in just under an hour of each other.

ImageEastern coral snake. by Josh Young, on Flickr

This month should turn up a few more corals again, and I look forward to them. Thanks for looking and hope y'all enjoyed.
Travistodd91
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Joined: August 1st, 2015, 7:36 pm

Re: Coralfest.

Post by Travistodd91 »

Oh man I am so jealous I read an article you either wrote or were in I forgot but anyway I had to thank you for being one of the reasons I found my first scarlet king !! Now I have one more Florida tri colored to check off my list I just need to find out how haha it seems impossible !!! I cruise day night after rain no rain during rain hot cool I can't get it right with these beauties if you had any helpful info I would be even more in your debt !
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Coralfest.

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Wow, the mist on the forest floor! Nice snakes, too :-)
Matt Arnold
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Joined: August 14th, 2011, 6:26 pm
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Re: Coralfest.

Post by Matt Arnold »

Hans Breuer (twoton) wrote:Wow, the mist on the forest floor! Nice snakes, too :-)
This. Sweet habitat shots, really enjoy your wide angle photography.
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Berkeley Boone
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Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Coralfest.

Post by Berkeley Boone »

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNGIT, Josh! Wow. I have got to check corals off my list. You are killing me with this!

--Berkeley
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walk-about
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Re: Coralfest.

Post by walk-about »

So Josh,

Hmmmm, wonder if you went 'looking for Corals', would you actually turn up a simus?? Ha-ha. LoL. Man, those are some pretty dang nice looking Corals, brother. Beautiful landscape and habitat shots of such awesome herp country. Thanks for sharing.

Dave
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Josh Young
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Re: Coralfest.

Post by Josh Young »

walk-about wrote:So Josh,

Hmmmm, wonder if you went 'looking for Corals', would you actually turn up a simus?? Ha-ha. LoL. Man, those are some pretty dang nice looking Corals, brother. Beautiful landscape and habitat shots of such awesome herp country. Thanks for sharing.

Dave
Actually, this past Sunday I went out with my buddy Nick Scobel in the same area with the simus to try and get him a coral, and we ended up getting a hatchling platyrhinos and hatchling simus instead.


Berkeley Boone wrote:DAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNGIT, Josh! Wow. I have got to check corals off my list. You are killing me with this!

--Berkeley
Come on down and we can make it happen.
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