Fall herping

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

Fall herping

Post by simus343 »

I decided it is about time for another post. Fall has been good to me over the past few weeks. I had not been herping much since my Alabama excursion back in August because I messed my vehicle up, but I just couldn't help myself. I was driving to class one day and decided to take a detour. That detour sparked the beginning of some serious hours on the roads over the past few weeks.

I turned onto the road that a friend of mine told me he has seen lots of Pygmy Rattlesnakes on. I was scanning for pygmies when I saw a snake. Rather than a pygmy though, it was yet another lifer this year. An adult female Southern Hognose!!

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Unfortunately, that one lucky pass was it for cruising that day as I had to head to class. Hyped up, I returned on the weekend, hoping to see more. I was a little crushed to stop for a DOR to see this little guy. A hatchling Eastern Hognose.

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I made up for it later that day with a live one though.

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After getting tired of cruising I drove elsewhere to check out some riparian areas and saw this little spiny softshell swimming in the shallows.

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Still set on seeing another Southern Hognose, I returned the following day. The day started off very slow, but picked up with some juvenile Eastern Diamondbacks.

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At this point I didn't so much care about Southern Hognose specifically, so much as I did that this place has a lot of neat stuff. I went back later in the week and started seeing snake tracks right away in the morning. I tried following some, all to no avail. At one point I drove right past a snake track and put my vehicle in reverse to look at the track. I still like to speculate at what species may have left it. As my eyes were tracing the track off the road, I realized that the snake had double back and was staring right at me! It was a very nice Eastern Coachwhip.

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On a pass following that I saw a funny looking rock on the side of the road. Turned out it wasn't actually a rock but an Eastern Box Turtle.

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The day really slowed down for a while. I then turned down a road that I had yet to check that day and saw this beauty of a Southern Pine Snake stretched right out in the middle of the road.

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A little while later I found my first rat snake for the area, this young Grey Rat Snake. It is/was the smallest one that I have seen to date.

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I guess it thought it was an anery mud snake. :P
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A young pygmy rattlesnake was turned up by a friend later that day, but none of my photos turned out too great with it. Right as the sun set though, I changed my target away from reptiles and over to amphibians. I wanted to see if the Bog Frogs were still calling. They were popping, but not calling. Apparently mating is done, which makes sense I guess because now the tadpoles are metamorphosing!

Two metamorphs
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Then two pics of one adult
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A few days later I came back yet again but was having 0 luck. So I left and went to the riparian area again and flipped this Southern Ringneck Snake. I really feel that these snakes are taken for granted. I guess they are easy enough to turn up, but I rarely spend any time trying so I, personally, don't see very many annually.

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Apparently that was a bad move on my part though. I went back to the dirt roads and got crushed by finding a DOR hatchling simus that I would have likely found had I not left.

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I had to go to class again though, so I didn't get to spend much time cruising. I made a pass on my way home that night and almost died of a heart attack. I saw a dark orange-brown snake darting across the road. I thought that this Corn Snake was a Mole King at first. It looks like the locality Mole Kings and I've seen more of them than I have Corn Snakes (this is my 5th corn snake to date).

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I went back at a later date to do some more cruising but only got 1 DOR Black Racer and I caught this Eastern Fence Lizard while stretching my legs.

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Finally, a few days ago was my most recent trip out. I started the day not caring what I would find, and decided I wasn't going to waste too much time at any one spot. The day started nice, finding this spiny softshell rather close to where I found the other a few weeks ago. When I had found the first one I also found egg shells, a nest that looked like it hatched on its own and lots of little prints heading down to the water. If this was the same softshell or a different one, I don't know.

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I later turned up a young Eastern Hognose, not a recent hatchling but perhaps an early season YoY born back in August. I took a video of it, but regretfully forgot to take any pictures. That wasn't too bad though, as later that day my opportunity came once again to photograph a hognose snake. This time, an adult male Southern Hognose!! I was and still am stoked. This gives me hope for the Southern Hognose in the area because the adult male was in very close proximity to where the adult female was.

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That's been my fall thus far. Looking ahead to the weather this coming week though, it appears that West Florida is about to get blasted by a serious cold front, so I'll be swapping to amphibians until spring time most likely.
Jimi
Posts: 1955
Joined: December 3rd, 2010, 12:06 pm

Re: Fall herping

Post by Jimi »

Fall has been good to me over the past few weeks.
I have to agree with you. Nicely done and shown! Nice looking EDBs in that area, I like the amount of yellow. Funny you mentioned looking for pigs and have no pics. Lotta hoggies is awesome tradeoff.

I hope winter is good to you too. Got any targets? Eastern tigers or something?

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

Re: Fall herping

Post by simus343 »

Jimi wrote:
Fall has been good to me over the past few weeks.
I have to agree with you. Nicely done and shown! Nice looking EDBs in that area, I like the amount of yellow. Funny you mentioned looking for pigs and have no pics. Lotta hoggies is awesome tradeoff.

I hope winter is good to you too. Got any targets? Eastern tigers or something?

cheers
This is the pig pic, or the best of the ones I took. Didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped. Also didn't help that we had curious rednecks passing two snake-loving-hippies acting like a bunch of psyched out teenage girls (even though we're 20-something guys) over this little bugger in the middle of the road haha. Had to get our pics, get it off the road, and get on before any of the locals started getting a little to inquisitive.

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My winter targets are yet again any and all ambystomids. Luckily I've got some volunteer work that I'm trying to line up, so that should help out some. Also a Southern Chorus Frog to round out my frogs for Florida. I've almost seen all the state's native species. Just a few more to go.
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Fieldherper
Posts: 252
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 10:46 am

Re: Fall herping

Post by Fieldherper »

Great post! Classic Fall sandhill herps.

FH
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Noah M
Posts: 2293
Joined: November 3rd, 2012, 7:00 pm
Location: Gainesville, FL
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Re: Fall herping

Post by Noah M »

This is a nice selection of stuff. Hognose snakes are just cute. The young softies are nice looking too.
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dwakefield
Posts: 122
Joined: February 18th, 2015, 11:11 am
Location: Deerfield Beach, Florida
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Re: Fall herping

Post by dwakefield »

Dude, that is an EPIC looking road. You found some stellar stuff on it.....I loved reading about it and seeing your pics. Now if I could just find a big Pine!
Carl D. May
Posts: 362
Joined: June 2nd, 2011, 4:17 am

Re: Fall herping

Post by Carl D. May »

Agree with everyone else. Wonderful finds and cool narrative.
All too familiar with 'curious locals' showing up just as I find something neat I want to photograph.
simus343
Posts: 566
Joined: March 30th, 2014, 1:16 pm
Location: Okaloosa ca, Fla.

Re: Fall herping

Post by simus343 »

Thanks all. It is definitely a nice place, though the habitat is a bit wonky. I'm just hoping that the snakes care more about the soil type than they do the vegetation or I fear that time may be limited on the site's productivity.
Tamara D. McConnell
Posts: 2248
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 11:42 am

Re: Fall herping

Post by Tamara D. McConnell »

Your pictures are so beautiful. Thank you for sharing your awesome finds.
simus343
Posts: 566
Joined: March 30th, 2014, 1:16 pm
Location: Okaloosa ca, Fla.

Re: Fall herping

Post by simus343 »

Tamara D. McConnell wrote:Your pictures are so beautiful. Thank you for sharing your awesome finds.
You're welcome and thanks Tamara. I'm still meaning to make it to Alabama! I haven't forgotten your offer haha. My workload just piled up so I haven't been able to drive as far as I'd like to lately.
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