Okefenokee Trip 2015

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Berkeley Boone »

It’s catch up time! I realized that I promised a review of a weekend trip to the Okefenokee swamp in my review of 2015’s second third (April to August). Well, here it is.

Some friends and I take an annual spring trip for some early season herping, and this year we went down to the Okefenokee area. It had been a few years since I was down there, and it was great to be back again. So Matt, his wife Anne, and I piled our gear into their car and we headed down south. The sun came and went, and we got a little rain here and there on the way down. Right about the time we were getting to our destination for the afternoon, we saw an odd helmet shape on the highway ahead. It was narrowly missed by the 18-wheeler barreling along in front of us, so we looked at it as we went by. It was definitely reptilian, but we just couldn’t tell what. Matt slammed on the brakes and we backed up, quickly exiting the car.

Turns out it was this beauty:
Image1cro hor atr by B Boone, on Flickr

She had hidden her head within her coils and was completely mounded up on the road. We hooked her up gently and moved her to the shoulder. Miraculously, she was uninjured, so we surmised that she must have been spooked by a vehicle in front of the truck, then defensively curled up and just by sheer luck managed to avoid being crushed by the big rig’s wheels.

She slowly uncurled and showed just how pretty she was
Image2cro hor atr by B Boone, on Flickr

Image3cro hor atr by B Boone, on Flickr

We moved her to a safe location and continued on to our destination. Wow! What a treat, and what a way to start our trip!

This time around, we were not going camping. Usually we do. We’ll find a nice spot along the river, or flat spot in the woods. We had elected to live the life of luxury and stay at the Suwannee River Eco Lodges in Fargo. We pulled in and waited for our friend Justin to arrive too.

Once we unloaded the cars and settled into our room, we sat out on the porch and enjoyed the clacking calls of several pinewoods and squirrel treefrogs. A thunderstorm was building and soon let loose. We parked ourselves in the rocking chairs with some cold drinks and listened to narrowmouth toads, southern toads, squirrel trees, pinewoods trees, green trees and little grass frogs playing their delightful symphony.

After the rain, we went out for some road cruising, but a cold front was passing through so we did not turn anything up. We stopped to explore some creeks and bridges on one of the roads we were on, and then we met up with Kerry, Noah and Daniel. The only thing of note that we found was the recently shed skin from a canebrake that I spotted from the bridge.
Image4cane shed by B Boone, on Flickr

The next morning, we went over to the Swamp park and wandered around. It was cool and gray, but the forecast was for a nice sunny day. Just before 10am the sun began to show itself, and we were already in position.

The various watersnake species began to show their heads
Redbelly
Image5ner ery head by B Boone, on Flickr

Image6ner ery by B Boone, on Flickr

We walked along a boardwalk out into some sweet looking swamp
Image7swamp by B Boone, on Flickr

This banded watersnake had stretched out on a fallen log
Image8ner fas full by B Boone, on Flickr

And a brown was woven among the tangle of these branches
Image9ner tax by B Boone, on Flickr

We reached the end of the boardwalk and were turning around when I spotted an odd looking banded watersnake, and thought I had found a green water. I was hoping to complete what we call the ‘Ner-Rodeo’, finding all of the Nerodia species in one trip. But upon closer inspection of our pics, we determined it was a fasciata.
Image10ner fas weird by B Boone, on Flickr

We walked back to our shoulderless friend that had been stretched out on the fallen tree. He was now completely in the sun warming his little bones. Smart fellow!
Image11ner fas sun by B Boone, on Flickr

We noticed a juvenile cottonmouth that had climbed up among some dried grasses and was basking as well
Image12agk pis by B Boone, on Flickr

A yellowbelly had hauled up and was taking advantage of the sunshine
Image13tra scr by B Boone, on Flickr

We took a different boardwalk into a different location which was covered in this wetland plant called Lizardtail.
Image14lizardtail by B Boone, on Flickr

Image15lizardtail by B Boone, on Flickr

While Justin and I were out photographing some birds, we heard voices coming down the boardwalk towards us. It turned out to be another friend named Cary and his son. They were on a camping trip and were now doing the same thing as we were- out looking for what was around.

Another banded watersnake cruised along the surface
Image16cruising by B Boone, on Flickr

While investigating the shrubs over the waterline for other critters, I found the caterpillar of an Okefenokee Zale Moth
Image17zale perculta by B Boone, on Flickr

A very large redbelly, which was also very shy and disappeared within a millisecond of me taking this photo.
Image18peekaboo by B Boone, on Flickr

A green treefrog doing its best to be invisible
Image19hyl cin by B Boone, on Flickr

This skink wanted to play a quick game of peek-a-boo
Image20eum fas by B Boone, on Flickr

I’ve been calling this a Florida cooter. I don’t really see the hairpins though. Thoughts? This is the best picture I got of it, unfortunately.
Image21Pseudemys by B Boone, on Flickr

Back in the main area of the park, we walked around the edge of the boat launch and found a mama alligator. She was around 7 feet long or so
Image22all mis by B Boone, on Flickr

Image23mama by B Boone, on Flickr

And her babies from last year were hiding amongst the cowslip lilies and pondweed
Image24baby gator by B Boone, on Flickr

People often ask how the bold black and yellow patterning on the baby gators is camouflage. I explain that they are probably seeing the juveniles against someone’s hand or a plain background, but if you drop them into the dark tannin-filled water with bits of dried and yellowing plants floating around, they are a lot harder to see.
Image25baby gators by B Boone, on Flickr

Image26camo by B Boone, on Flickr

We parted ways with Cary and his son, and went to look for some Rhadinea before we headed back to our lodge for lunch. Rhadinea is one of just a handful of snakes I have left to find in Georgia. But it was not to be today.

But, as a consolation prize (maybe?), I watched this pair of dung beetles rolling some scat across the parking lot. It always amazes me how fast and how far they can roll.
Image27pooper scoopers by B Boone, on Flickr

Image28rollin rollin rollin by B Boone, on Flickr

After we refueled, we wandered around in the wet flatwoods near where we were staying. There was all sorts of fun stuff to look at.
Orange milkwort, or Bog Cheetos
Image29polygala lutea1 by B Boone, on Flickr

Candyroot
Image30polygala nana1 by B Boone, on Flickr

The habitat we were walking around in
Image31flatwoods by B Boone, on Flickr

Rattlebox, an invasive shrub
Image32sesbania punicea by B Boone, on Flickr

It sure is a pretty flower though
Image33ses pun flower by B Boone, on Flickr

A pinewoods treefrog
Image34hyl fem by B Boone, on Flickr

Image35hyl fem1 by B Boone, on Flickr

We eventually turned up some scarlet snakes, which were a highlight. It had been a little while since I had seen some scarlets.
Image36cem coc road by B Boone, on Flickr

Image37cem coc by B Boone, on Flickr

Image38cem coc double by B Boone, on Flickr

It was approaching mid-afternoon so we decided to head out to some other locations to try our luck.
Image39road by B Boone, on Flickr

We stopped at a few bridges to see if there were any watersnakes, gators or turtles out basking. It became obvious to us that we were getting close to the University of Florida fan territory.
Image40bridge by B Boone, on Flickr

But then it just became awkward. The stereotypes are true, they do make their own jean shorts….
Image41some sad florida fan by B Boone, on Flickr

For what it is worth, I did flip that jeans leg to see if there was anything of interest underneath. (There was not….)

Then, to add injury to insult, deer flies and horse flies began to show up.
Image42B52 Fly from Hell by B Boone, on Flickr

We kept roadcruising, but mercifully didn’t really find much that we wanted to spend time photographing. There were a few racers, ribbons and the odd gator or two out on the roads, so we didn’t have to fight these biting flies much.

Sawfly caterpillar of some species, chowing down
Image43sawfly caterpillar by B Boone, on Flickr

We stopped at a couple of roadside swamps to look for critters.
Image44swamp by B Boone, on Flickr

Matt and Justin and I stepped out onto the logs and, while balancing, grabbed handfuls of the mats of floating vegetation to look through them. Anne waited on the bank. I laughed when she told me later that she was simultaneously impressed and disappointed that none of us fell in while we were doing that.

Surprisingly, there still was not much out on the roads, so we headed back to the lodges. We went back out into the woods there.
Image45wet flatwoods by B Boone, on Flickr

Image46wet flatwoods close by B Boone, on Flickr

Matt and Justin and I walked the road and driveway back and forth and came up with a smallish rat snake and a juvenile legless lizard.
Image47ela obs spi by B Boone, on Flickr

Image48ela obs spi by B Boone, on Flickr

Image49ela obs spi climb by B Boone, on Flickr

Image50sarracenia minor2 by B Boone, on Flickr

Image51sarracenia minor1 by B Boone, on Flickr

Image52oph ven gravel by B Boone, on Flickr

Image53oph ven head by B Boone, on Flickr

Image54Pics by B Boone, on Flickr

As it began to move into late afternoon, we ate an early dinner then jumped back into the cars for some more roadcruising. We split up to try and cover more area, hoping to increase our chances of finding something. I was really hoping for a coral, and this last night’s roadcruise may bring it.

Unfortunately, we didn’t find all that much. Justin and I found another legless lizard and another scarlet snake.
Image55oph ven by B Boone, on Flickr

Image56oph ven car by B Boone, on Flickr

Matt and Anne found a couple of DORs. But since it was such a nice night, we were able to ride along and listen to the choruses of frogs calling in the darkness.

It was a good trip, and ended too soon. I’m looking forward to our spring trip this next year. We don’t know where it will be yet, but it is always a good time to get out with great friends.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this brief trip!
--Berkeley
User avatar
chrish
Posts: 3295
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 11:14 pm
Location: San Antonio, TX
Contact:

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by chrish »

Great post. Not enough frog pictures ;) , but still a great post.
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Berkeley Boone »

chrish wrote:Great post. Not enough frog pictures ;) , but still a great post.
Ha ha! Thanks Chris. I appreciate it- glad you liked it. I know, there weren't a lot of frogs pictured in the post, despite there being thousands around. Basically all of the ones that we saw were while it was raining and/or we were roadcruising, so I didn't pull my camera out for that. I tried for some of the jillions of Little Grass Frogs that were hopping across the roads, but gave up after my 332nd try to catch one for pictures.

Here's a pig frog that I spotted from the boardwalk. Terrible pic because of all the material in the way, so I hadn't included it earlier. :)

Imagepiggy by B Boone, on Flickr

--Berkeley
User avatar
walk-about
Posts: 567
Joined: June 14th, 2010, 12:04 pm
Location: 'God's Country' aka western KY
Contact:

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by walk-about »

Beautiful post Berkeley! Great looking specimens and most excellent images. Looks like you really had a blast in 2015. I have never been to Okefenokee, and so any time I can see such great pics of that place, it is something I take note of.

Dave
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Thanks Dave, I appreciate the very kind words! Yes, I had fun in 2015! It was a great year.

You should definitely check out the Okefenokee if you ever get the chance. It is a really cool place. Obviously, lots to see too!

--Berkeley
User avatar
Blacktail31
Posts: 50
Joined: March 2nd, 2013, 4:47 pm
Location: Tucson Arizona

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Blacktail31 »

That has to be the most beautiful horridus I have ever seen. So pinkish!
User avatar
Ameron
Posts: 60
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 5:57 pm
Location: Portland/Vancouver

Hello from the Other Corner of the USA

Post by Ameron »

Another "Wow!" post, with world-class quality photos. I enjoyed the text & stories, too.

Agreed, that pink Canebrake was outstanding. So happy that she was saved from the highway.

I've explored much of the West, and some of Baja & Canada, but never the East Coast. (Where most of the North American plants & animals are, unfortunately.) One day, I look forward to visiting & exploring places like Okefenokee.

Thanks for letting the rest of us take a vicarious trip through the swamp...

Don in Vancouver, WA

1.0 Lampropeltis getula splendida
1.0 Terrapene carolina carolina
1.0 Terrapene carolina triangus
0.1 Lichurana trivirgata trivirgata
0.1 Boa dumerli (reclassified in 2015 from Acrantophis dumerili)
User avatar
mfb
Posts: 275
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 6:06 am
Contact:

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by mfb »

Great post, thanks for sharing! In addition to all the herps, I really liked the habitat, dung beetle and pitcher plant photos. Gives a sense for the rest of the environment the herps live in. Mike
Tamara D. McConnell
Posts: 2248
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 11:42 am

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Tamara D. McConnell »

Great post, I enjoyed the vicarious adventure!
Rman
Posts: 142
Joined: April 22nd, 2012, 3:32 pm
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Rman »

Outstanding canebrake! And the jorts...hahaha
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Wow, away for a few days and lots of replies! Thanks all!

Yes, Blacktail, it was an amazingly pink canebrake!

Don, thanks for the very kind words. I am pleased you enjoyed the post so much! Glad to take you along on a vicarious trip. You should come see it in person one day!

Thanks Mike! That's exactly what I aim for when I include all the other stuff. I enjoy looking at it all when I am outside.

Thank you Tamara!

Ha ha! I know, Rman! Those jorts were hilarious! And thus the need to share with yall!

Thanks everyone!
--Berkeley
cherper
Posts: 173
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:14 am
Location: CSRA Georgia

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by cherper »

Berkeley,

Always fun to run into herping buddies out of the blue! That was definitely one of the highlights of our camping trip. Wish we could have stayed longer to look for more critters. Great post!
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Agreed, Cary! That was pretty cool- I remember thinking to myself as we heard you all walking up, 'Try to look like you're not a nerd. These people are probably out looking for critters too' Justin was totally nerding out over that squirrel.... Good thing it was you guys! Ha ha!

Once Matt's son gets a little older, I think we should do a weekend trip like that- camping, herping; the works.

--Berkeley
User avatar
Steve Barten
Posts: 162
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 5:13 pm
Location: NE Illinois

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Steve Barten »

Wow, fantastic post! The canebrake is obviously stunning, but the other herps are beautiful too. Love the ratsnake climbing the tree, the carnivorous plants, and the habitat shots.
Thanks for sharing, makes a cold winter day more tolerable.
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Thanks very much, Steve. The photos of the rat snake climbing the tree were some of my favorites from that trip. I thought they turned out pretty well.

Glad that helped you get through a cold day! Spring will be here soon(ish).

--Berkeley
User avatar
dwakefield
Posts: 122
Joined: February 18th, 2015, 11:11 am
Location: Deerfield Beach, Florida
Contact:

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by dwakefield »

Amazing Canebrake! What a thrill it must have been to find that one! I grew up in Mississippi and managed to never find anything but a huge DOR. Now that I'm living in south Florida, I'm hoping to get up to the northern part of the state sometime and find one of those beauties.
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Okefenokee Trip 2015

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Sorry, didn't mean to let this response slip by, Daniel!

Yeah, it was a really colorful canebrake! It got the heart pumping a lot bit to see it. It was amazing.
Good luck in your quest to find one. North Florida has some lookers for sure!

--Berkeley
Post Reply