Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

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

Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Marisa's (crazins) recent post of her spring trips reminded me that I had a few trips under my belt that I had not posted yet. This post will showcase the beginning of this year but also includes some interesting observations from the end of summer last year. These pictures were on my wife's camera, and I totally forgot that they were there.
Here is the observation from last summer. I went up to visit the summer camp that I grew up going to and worked at as well for several years. I go back a couple of times a summer, with some animals in tow, to do presentations for them. The kids get a kick out of it, and I get to wander around 'home' for a few days. This particular trip I went down to a beaver pond on the property to look for wildlife. It is especially rich in critters, and there is a nice boardwalk out over it for better views.
This time was no disappointment! I saw turtle tracks everywhere in the mud.
Image

Image

Big ones, small ones. Some I could tell were made from common snappers. Others were painteds and muds.
Image

Image

I even saw some of the culprits making them.
Image

There are three snappers in this picture:
Image

Image

Image

It was amazing! I ended up seeing 14 adult snappers in this small pond. The smallest was approximately 10 inches SCL, and the biggest (he walked right under me on the boardwalk) was approximately 16 inches SCL. I also saw several mud and musk turtles as well as the odd painted turtle creating these tracks on the bottom.

Okay, fast forward to late winter. My good buddy Justin and I decide we need a trip out of town, and to find some herps. So we headed down south to meet up with another good friend, Dann, and one of the guys that he works with, Kenny. We drove down after work on Friday night, and got to the house around 10pm. We stayed up til nearly 2am catching up, telling stories and looking through Herp Review. The next morning began around 7am.....

We got into the trucks and went out to a site that had some mole skinks. This is a species I have been looking for, for a while! Dann swore that this would be the trip where I finally got to see one! And his promise held true- I saw just one! When I flipped a cinder block, I saw this waiting for me underneath:
Image

Since it was still cold outside, the skink allowed me to gently pull its covering off and expose it a little more. It sat patiently while I photographed it.
Image

Image

Image

Another two mole skinks were seen, but couldn't be secured. They are fast and hard to hold on to!
Next, since it was warming up a little bit, we decided to go try our luck at some gopher tortoise burrows to see if anyone was home and getting up. We drove to one that was particularly active and lo and behold, this is what greeted us:
Image

Image

This indigo snake was asleep in the sun, and was warming up. He allowed us to get several in situ photos before he eased off into the grass. I was pretty stoked too- he looked like he was a pretty decent size.

After that, we got back into the trucks and were driving along a dirt track in the middle of nowhere. Kenny and I were in the lead truck, small talking and listening to the radio. When I am out on a dirt road, I tend to watch the habitat off to the sides. You never know what you are going to see. This time it paid off big! About thirty feet off the passenger side of the truck, back in the burned grass clumps, pine cones and young longleaf pines, I saw a yellow, black and brown patterned sausage.
My first thought was 'Florida king!'
My second though, was 'Wait, I'm still in Georgia....'
My third thought was 'Rattlesnake!'
That all happened in about a quarter of a second. In a flash, I yelled to Kenny "Snake! Stop!" and I was out the door and running into the longleaves. Kenny stopped the truck, and Justin and Dann, who were in the truck behind us, stopped and got out as well, bewildered. I told them I had seen a big rattler, and I don't think they quite believed me. Justin was the first to spot it on the ground. She was crawling straight for the road, but had frozen in place when she sensed us. Here she is in all her glory, in situ in the first pic, and then scrunched up just a little (but panned out):
Image

Image

Lots of expletives and high fives were thrown out at this time. Words cannot express how excited I was to have found that snake. She was MASSIVE! She was very well behaved. She never rattled, but instead slowly crawled back from the direction she had come from. I'll spare the details of the time we photographed her, but show some more pictures.

Image

Image

Image

Dann was really impressed, and said that it may be the largest rattlesnake he remembered seeing in the wild. It was a female, and we conservatively estimated her to be at least 5 and a half feet long. Honestly, I feel like she was a fair six feet, but we did not measure her- we took only the photographs and let her crawl back into the scrub.
Image

Image

After that, we rode that high for a while! We went and netted around in some swamps to see if we could find any spotted turtles, but were unable to locate any. I took some pictures of a rather colorful cricket frog:
Image

Then ended up taking more of another that jumped into the plant I was trying to photograph:
Image

Image

See it yet? It is right in the Goldenclub....
Image

We then rolled some logs and Justin found a Dwarf Salamander! My second lifer of the day!
Image

Image

We took a snack break, then Dann said he had to take off for some other plans he had. So Justin and I hung out with Kenny, and decided we wanted to go see if there was any activity happening at any of the tortoise burrows that were around. We went back to the one that we stopped at in the morning, and saw the indigo snake again. This time, he was inside the mouth of the burrow.
Image

We saw indigo tracks at another burrow nearby.
Image

And then Kenny found another indigo snake at yet another tortoise burrow. This one was a female- and was the first female indigo I had ever seen, and this was also the first time I had seen multiple indigos in one day. That was exciting!
Image

Unfortunately, the poor girl had a pretty nasty looking infection in one of her eyes.
Image

But seeing as how it was still early in the year, we figured once she caught a few meals and had a few sheds she would probably be as good as new. It was getting late in the day, so we went back to the house and cleaned up and went out to dinner at some wonderful all-you-can-eat establishment. And we did just that.

When we got back to the house, we put on some headlamps and walked over to a pond that was a couple hundred yards away. When we had gotten in last night, I heard a lone Ornate Chorus frog calling, and I REALLY wanted to find one of those for some pictures. Turns out it is quite the challenge.

The pond was absolutely deafening with all of the frogs calling- leopards, southern chorus, ornate chorus, and peepers. We started locating the leopards and the peepers right off the bat:
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

The ornata were a bit more of a challenge. We finally located a calling male:
Image

Another lifer! Though, I was just a tad disappointed because it wasn't the real bright green phase I had grown up seeing the pictures of. I was still happy to see it though!
Image

After looking a little longer, we did end up catching a green ornata, as well as two that were a very nice red color. I didn't get any of the red ones in photos, though Justin got some great group shots of them all together.
Image

Image

Another quadridigitata:
Image

And we found scads of the quad larvae in little puddles around the pond, but I was unable to get any pics of them because my batteries died at that point.

Justin and I had to head back after that (worst idea ever, it was after 10pm!) because I had to be at work the next day for my bears' birthday party. They were turning one year old, and the Zoo staff was throwing a party for them.

So what do you get two twin black bear cubs who are turning one year old? Thirty pounds of acorns. Yes that's right. 30 lbs!
Image

Image

Image

Image

They enjoyed it immensely and then, like any other one year olds, crashed. Hard.

After the bear cub party, I went out to a local riverside park in hopes of continuing my high from the weekend, and found a couple of things. Nothing major, but fun to photograph.
A queen snake
Image

A cold anole
Image

Well, that's it for this installment of the late winter recap. If you are still with me, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.
Part two coming soon.
--Berkeley
User avatar
Crazins
Posts: 269
Joined: June 14th, 2010, 6:49 pm
Location: My car

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Crazins »

SO jealous of those indigos...
It was great meeting you, and I hope we can herp together again soon!

-Marisa
User avatar
Nigel Smith
Posts: 268
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 10:52 am
Location: Lexington Kentucky

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Nigel Smith »

Man that diamondback was insane. And two indigos in one day? Jeesh! Those are two lifers I would completely freak out over.

Congrats!
User avatar
Josh Holbrook
Posts: 2196
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:11 am
Location: Western North Carolina
Contact:

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Josh Holbrook »

Great stuff. Can't wait for the next GA adventure.

Or you guys could come down here some time for some serpentine megafauna :mrgreen:

-Josh
cherper
Posts: 173
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:14 am
Location: CSRA Georgia

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by cherper »

Berkeley,

Now I'm re-inspired! I want to go south with you next time you look for those species! Please keep me in mind. Great story, too. Congrats! 8-)
User avatar
Don
Posts: 374
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:36 am
Location: Sunny Myrtle Beach

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Don »

WOW! I'm very envious! Monster EDB and 2 indigo snakes. You rock!
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Berkeley Boone »

I know, sorry about you missing out on seeing some indigos Marisa!...... It was great to meet you too. Glad we could all get together to look around, and yes, let's do it again sometime soon!

Thanks Nigel. I was pretty dang excited to see both of those species in the same day. It was absolutely incredible. Typing up that post yesterday afternoon got me all worked up all over again!

Josh, definitely good for another GA adventure! Though, we really need to make the pilgrimage down there. I have always wanted to introduce myself to a big freaking python! Let's get another email going....

That's what I am talking about Cary! We'll do another run down there sometime later this year I am sure. Glad those photos got you pumped up. I'll let you know of the next trip we come up with.

Thanks Don! I'm really glad you enjoyed that. I knew you'd like the southern royalty!

Thanks yall!
--Berkeley
User avatar
Daniel D Dye
Posts: 1220
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 4:56 pm
Location: New River (Brooker), Florida
Contact:

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Daniel D Dye »

How did I miss this one. Enjoyed it very much, Berkeley.

Daniel
User avatar
Mulebrother
Posts: 364
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:31 am
Location: A bunker near Mountainburg AR

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Mulebrother »

This is what i fantasize about a southeast herp trip being...so far, its never happened! You make me jealous!!! But it IS nice to see an indigo at the mouth of a gopher tortoise den...nice to know it really happens! Awesome pics.
User avatar
cayrip
Posts: 275
Joined: October 29th, 2010, 7:06 am
Location: Denver, CO

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by cayrip »

Thanks for sharing Berkeley!
User avatar
Berkeley Boone
Posts: 878
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 4:02 am

Re: Late Winter/Spring in GA, with The EPITOME of herping!

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Thanks Daniel, I'm glad you got to see it!

Brad, come see us sometime. We'll treat you right. Thank you sir, it was a pretty amazing trip!

Thanks Cameron! Happy to oblige!

--Berkeley
Post Reply