EOY 2016 (Grand Cayman, NC, Snake Road)

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

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

EOY 2016 (Grand Cayman, NC, Snake Road)

Post by Steve Barten »

EOY 2016 (Grand Cayman, NC, Snake Road)

In February I visited Grand Cayman and posted a full FHF report here: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/vie ... =2&t=23204

I saw a ton of Blue Iguanas, Cyclura lewisi, and participated in health screens and release of captive-bred, head-started juveniles. Here are a few images from that post for those who don’t want to see the whole thing.
Image

Eating a noni fruit
Image

Unmarked juvenile in the botanic park; evidence of successful reproduction outside of the captive breeding program.
Image

The “trail” into Collier’s Wilderness to release the captive-born, head-started juveniles. It totally ruined my shoes.
Image

Fly and be free! These juveniles are released when they are too big for Cayman Racer snakes to eat. Wooden shelters are provided to help them acclimate; the survival rate of released lizards is almost 100%.
Image

If you'd like to see more images from this trip, check out the original post.
Image

In May I went to coastal North Carolina with the goal of seeing a Carolina Pygmy Rattlesnake.
Carnivorous plants were abundant. Yellow pitcher plants.
Image

Purple pitcher plants
Image]

Sweet Pitcher Plants
Image

Venus Flytraps. It is now a felony to dig these up. People propagate them in greenhouses, I don’t know why anyone would risk felony conviction to poach them.
Image

Pink sundew
Image

The first morning was cool and overcast in the low 60s, but we made a few good finds.
Eastern Kingsnake
Image

Melanistic Eastern Hog-nosed Snake
Image

Pine Woods Snake
Image

Southeastern Five-lined Skink
Image

Where’s Waldo baby alligators
Image

Alligator
Image

Brown Watersnake
Image

Bullfrog
Image

Eastern Mud Turtle
Image

It warmed up after that and things started moving.
Rough Greensnake
Image

Copperhead
Image

Opaque Cornsnake found under tin
Image

Yellow-bellied Slider digging a nest in the road
Image

Black racer going full cobra
Image

This Mudsnake was lying in the open, sluggish, and barely moving. It was clearly ill, but had no signs of injury.
Image

Cottonmouth with 3 skeeters on its head
Image

Narrow-mouthed toad
Image

Who goes there?
Image

Yellow-bellied Slider just truckin’ down the road
Image

Coastal Spiderlily
Image

Juveline Eastern Ratsnake (“Greenish Ratsnake”)
Image

Green Anole
Image

Southeastern Five-lined Skink
Image

Oak Toad
Image

Scarlet Kingsnake
Image

Eastern Box Turtle
Image

Different Eastern Box Turtle
Image

Plain-bellied Watersnake
Image

On the last afternoon, in the last couple of hours, we found a shed skin of our target Carolina Pygmy Rattlesnake outside of a stump hole, but no one was home.
Image

On the last afternoon, in the last 20 minutes, I flipped a small log and found this. Target finally acquired, photography ensued.
Image

Not field herping, but we drove to Wilmington to visit Dean Ripa’s Cape Fear Serpentarium. The exhibits and specimens are spectacular and worth a visit. Dean was kind enough to give us a behind-the-scenes tour.
They fed their 10 to 12-foot Saltwater Crocodile a turkey neck by offering it through a small trap door 6 to 7 feet above the floor of the cage using Pilstrom Tongs that were about 10 feet long. This was for the public. The speed with which that giant herp got so high off the ground was impressive.
Image

They have an impressive collection of Bushmasters and Lanceheads, and fed a number of their snakes that day.
Image

But you’re not here to see herps in a public display, so I’ll move on.
Image

In the fall I made a short trip to the Snake Road area of southern Illinois. We were there for only two half-days on our travel days and two full days in between. Still we hit the weather just right and saw over 100 cottonmouths, 8 copperheads, 4 timber rattlesnakes, and a few other goodies.

It’s all about the timing
Image

Big Muddy, Route 3 Bridge, and the Levee Road
Image

This was my favorite find of the trip. As we started walking down the road, a Southern Leopard Frog jumped into the grass. When we checked out where it had landed, we spotted a Copperhead coiled right next to the frog. Photography ensued, including this image. We then hiked the entire length of the road and back again, pausing to admire herps and scenery, arriving back at this exact spot 6 hours later. The frog was gone but the Copperhead was still there, only this time we noticed a second Copperhead right next to it. On reviewing the first photos from 6 hours earlier (below), that second Copperhead is visible, yet none of the six experienced herpers in our party saw it.
Image

We hit the Southern Illinois viper trifecta (Cottonmouths, Copperheads, Timber Rattlesnakes) two days in a row at two different sites.
More Copperheads
Image

Image

Image

Cottonmouths
They float
Image

I wish there was a size reference in this photo; it was the biggest Cottonmouth any of the six of us had ever seen.
Image

Image

This one was a good 10 feet off the ground. We also saw 3 or 4 that were basking in vines along a sheer bluff face a good 30 feet above the ground.
Image

Many of the 100-plus we saw were neonates.
Image

Image

Timber Rattlesnakes:
Three of the four were juveniles and one was a 3-foot-plus adult male.
Image

Image

Image

Image

Some other finds:
This Red-bellied Snake was emerging from a crack in a dead log; the log was horizontal and the trunk was about 2 feet above the ground due to the root ball.
Image

Rough Greensnake; hard to spot in the vines
Image

Long-tailed Salamanders
Image

Marbled Salamanders. The one on the right was pale and likely hypomelanistic or white-sided or something.
Image

Mole Salamander
Image

Eft
Image

Cricket Frog
Image

Midland Ratsnake
Image

Red Milksnake
Image

Thanks for looking and Happy New Year.
BethH
Posts: 115
Joined: May 12th, 2013, 6:47 pm

Re: EOY 2016 (Grand Cayman, NC, Snake Road)

Post by BethH »

Very nice pictures. Thank you for posting them.
User avatar
ClosetHerper
Posts: 72
Joined: October 22nd, 2013, 3:32 pm
Location: Alaska
Contact:

Re: EOY 2016 (Grand Cayman, NC, Snake Road)

Post by ClosetHerper »

Nice cross section of herps and nice photos. The story of the unseen copperhead is pretty cool. It is easy to focus on the obvious and miss the less obvious!
sjohn
Posts: 19
Joined: December 10th, 2013, 7:36 am
Location: NC

Re: EOY 2016 (Grand Cayman, NC, Snake Road)

Post by sjohn »

Great post ...thanks
Jimi
Posts: 1955
Joined: December 3rd, 2010, 12:06 pm

Re: EOY 2016 (Grand Cayman, NC, Snake Road)

Post by Jimi »

Likewise, thanks. I always enjoy what you share, Steve.

Interesting timbers. That adult sure looks like the pink/purple canes of S GA and N FL. He's a lot smaller, I suppose, but otherwise he's a dead ringer. A glorious little dragon-beast.
The “trail” into Collier’s Wilderness to release the captive-born, head-started juveniles. It totally ruined my shoes.
Karst is pretty fierce, huh? Ha ha. I hope you never fell down - it's hard on anything it touches.

Happy New Year to you too.
Post Reply