Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

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Scott_Wahlberg
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Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Scott_Wahlberg »

Texas 2011
In no particular order here are some pics of a few animals encountered this year in various parts of the state.

Back in February I stumbled across a population of Desmognathus auriculatus in extreme eastern Texas. I went back in May and was able to find a total of 30 adults in the same location and in other nearby springs. The variation in pattern and color was impressive. Whether or not these are auriculatus, I don't know, but it was definitely neat to find that they're still Desmognathus present in good numbers in some places in east Texas.

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Also in March I met up with Toby Hibbitts and his Texas A&M Herpetology field class for one of their field meets.

We found a few Pigmy Rattlesnakes that trip.
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This Louisiana Milksnake was flipped at an abandoned homestead.

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Texas Corn Snake that was found
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Also in March John and I took our first of normally several trips to South Texas.
To describe south Texas as dry would be the understatement of the century. Despite the less than ideal conditions we still did alright.

A few Drymobius still turned up.
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However this has been my favorite herp find of the year. They were under a scalding hot piece of tin laying in direct sunlight on top of charred rubble.
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Crotaphytus reticulatus

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We encountered quite a bit of Peyote at one site.
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While walking around looking for Crotaphytus we encountered a few of these Scorpions. We incidentally happened to be at the type locality for this recently described species. This species was first seen by locals in Rio Grande City. The locals observed them emerging from the base of steel crosses at the grotto in town. They naturally assumed it was the devil emerging from beneath.

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Diplocentrus diablo

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A Desert Kingsnake from the south Texas coast. This was a sharp looking snake, I wish I would’ve put forth more of an effort to get better pictures.
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In May when east Texas finally got its first rain shower of the year. All the area herpers took off in different directions. John was the only one to make a noteworthy find that night with a handful of Rana areolata on the road. The next night Toby and I went back and found a few.
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A few days later we got more rain so I went out and participated in some Houston Toad surveys west of Houston. Their breeding season was just about over by that point and none were found. We did find this nice Canebrake crossing the road a little after 2:00am during a light rain.
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While walking a steep rocky ravine in Sabine County I found this yellow belly/red belly snake. These aren’t too common in the region, this being only the second one I have found.
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Storeria occipitomaculata

Canebrake from the Sam Houston National Forest
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This was a neat find as it was only 40 miles from my parents house in Houston, making it the closest I’ve found this species to the city.
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Buttermilk Racer
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A few Prairie Kings this year.
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A nice looking Heterodon
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I spent a little bit of time in West Texas this year.
Brandon and I spent a lot of time checking snags and chasing Rio Grande Sliders in the Rio Grande. We were successful in getting one.
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Trachemys gaigeae
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Phryonosoma were abundant on the road
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We dip-netted a number of Barred Tiger Salamanders while out there. These were from the Midland area.
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Ambystoma marvortium

A badger found in its burrow while doing Sceloporus arenicouls surveys.
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While these are considered trash snakes throughout much of their range. They have a spotty distribution in south east Texas and are thought to be extirpated from some parts of their Texas range. With that being said they seem to be locally abundant in a few places.
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Thamnophis sirtalis

That's it for now.

-Scott
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Crazins
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Crazins »

Hot damn those Drymobius are gorgeous.
Nice post!

-Marisa
Shane_TX
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Shane_TX »

Cool herps, though I do have one complaint:
Pigmy Rattlesnakes
It should be pygmy, not pigmy; don't give in to the Dark Side. Examples of why it should be Pygmy (in no particular order):

1) Consonants are cooler than vowels (a word that does not contain a real vowel is especially cool)
2) Pygmy is a word
3) Pygmyish is a word (pigmyish and pigmiish are not words)
4) Pygmoid is a word (pigmoid is not)
5) Pigmalion (don't think so)
6) Pigmy peoples (nope)
7) SSAR says so

Other than those pygmyish details it looks like you're having a good year!

Shane
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Knightkrawler5
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Knightkrawler5 »

I don't have any complaints!...impressive finds and photos
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KingCam
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by KingCam »

I've never heard of a "Buttermilk Racer" before. It's incredible! :shock:
dthor68
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by dthor68 »

Never get tired of seeing Buttermilks!
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Norman M. Schlincter
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Norman M. Schlincter »

Such a lovely assortment of Texas herpetofauna! I remember in my young days finding dark salamanders in the spring fed streams of eastern Texas. I cannot remember clearly now, but I'm fairly sure they were dusky salamanders!
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MHollanders
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by MHollanders »

Nice post, Scott. I truly think you'll be able to do great things with a new camera!

Norman, very interesting observation. Would you mind sharing in what general areas you were finding these salamanders? Correct me if I'm wrong, Scott (or anyone else), but haven't they only been found in a handful of localities in the past few decades?
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MeesterSir
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by MeesterSir »

Nice post. Those racers are really something. I don't know much about the status of Texas Corn Snakes but I sure wish we saw them more frequently.

-MS
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Todd McKinney
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Todd McKinney »

Awesome Post! Very Nice Pics as well, specially the King.
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Casey Lazik
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Casey Lazik »

Scott,

Outstanding! That male reticulatus is a brute! Thanks for sharing. Garters are not trash snakes! lol 8-) I second the spelling of P-y-g-m-y.

Casey
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billysbrown
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by billysbrown »

Very nice post. I have one question about the sliders. How did you catch them in that water? It looks like you could see maybe 6 inches underwater.

Thanks,
Billy
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Eric East
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Eric East »

Man those dry's are awesome; the butter milks are pretty sweet too! :thumb:
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Brian Willey
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Brian Willey »

Superb Scott! That anthicus is really quite a beauty! There's some other cool stuff in there also including the Collareds, Drymobius, Tigers and badger.
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chris drake
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by chris drake »

Great post Scott. That desert king is very nice! I thought for sure the other night i found my first pyg but it turned out to be a small southern copperhead. I think that was #44 of the year. I look at it this way.. as long as you are finding them spell it however you want! :) Even with this awful weather you've had a very good year.

Chris
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justinm
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by justinm »

You really threw me for a few loops with all these great finds. I didn't expect to see so many Salamanders, nor did I expect to see a Crawfish Frog from Texas. I really need to get to Texas and find anything. The diversity was really outstanding, thanks for sharing.
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Mike VanValen
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Mike VanValen »

That buttermilk is outstanding! Love the Lampros as well.
dickbartlett
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by dickbartlett »

Great photography, wonderful variety, Scott.
Taxidea = one of my favorite mammals. Its disposition is very similar to one of my long time field companions<LOL>
Gotta say though, your avatar is my favorite pic of all! Cheers/Dick
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Scott_Wahlberg
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by Scott_Wahlberg »

Crazins wrote:Hot damn those Drymobius are gorgeous.
Nice post!

-Marisa
Thanks!
Shane_TX wrote:Cool herps, though I do have one complaint:
Pigmy Rattlesnakes
It should be pygmy, not pigmy; don't give in to the Dark Side. Examples of why it should be Pygmy (in no particular order):

1) Consonants are cooler than vowels (a word that does not contain a real vowel is especially cool)
2) Pygmy is a word
3) Pygmyish is a word (pigmyish and pigmiish are not words)
4) Pygmoid is a word (pigmoid is not)
5) Pigmalion (don't think so)
6) Pigmy peoples (nope)
7) SSAR says so

Other than those pygmyish details it looks like you're having a good year!

Shane
Shane, actually I agree with you. That was a legitimiate error on my part. I'll be in town until the end of August. Let me know when you wanna get out into the Columbia bottomlands.
Knightkrawler5 wrote:I don't have any complaints!...impressive finds and photos
Thanks!
KingCam wrote:I've never heard of a "Buttermilk Racer" before. It's incredible! :shock:
They're fun snakes and highly variable throughout their range. In my opinion south east Texas routinely produces the nicest looking examples. I have quite a few pics of them in my summary of 2010 posts from several months ago.
dthor68 wrote:Never get tired of seeing Buttermilks!
Me either!
Norman M. Schlincter wrote:Such a lovely assortment of Texas herpetofauna! I remember in my young days finding dark salamanders in the spring fed streams of eastern Texas. I cannot remember clearly now, but I'm fairly sure they were dusky salamanders!
Norman, that's an interesting observation. Their historic range encompassed much of east Texas. They're currently known from only two counties in east Texas and haven't been seen in many of their historic locales since the 1970's. Interesting you moved from east Texas all the way to North Dakota. You'd have to take me there in a body bag.
MHollanders wrote:Nice post, Scott. I truly think you'll be able to do great things with a new camera!

Norman, very interesting observation. Would you mind sharing in what general areas you were finding these salamanders? Correct me if I'm wrong, Scott (or anyone else), but haven't they only been found in a handful of localities in the past few decades?
If the d7000 is ever in stock again I hope to do so. See above about the Desmognathus. I'll show you some in August.
MeesterSir wrote:Nice post. Those racers are really something. I don't know much about the status of Texas Corn Snakes but I sure wish we saw them more frequently.

-MS
I'll try and include more Pantherophis pictures next time. They're relatively common in any open sandy sites in the region.
Todd McKinney wrote:Awesome Post! Very Nice Pics as well, specially the King.
Thanks!
Casey Lazik wrote:Scott,

Outstanding! That male reticulatus is a brute! Thanks for sharing. Garters are not trash snakes! lol 8-) I second the spelling of P-y-g-m-y.

Casey
I don't think their trash snakes either but I don't see them often enough to think that.
billysbrown wrote:Very nice post. I have one question about the sliders. How did you catch them in that water? It looks like you could see maybe 6 inches underwater.

Thanks,
Billy
The Rio Grande was so low that there were multiple pools that had become isolated from the river. We just searched worked these pools by feeling under and at the base of snags for turtles. We found the above slider and handful of softshells that way.
chris drake wrote:Great post Scott. That desert king is very nice! I thought for sure the other night i found my first pyg but it turned out to be a small southern copperhead. I think that was #44 of the year. I look at it this way.. as long as you are finding them spell it however you want! :) Even with this awful weather you've had a very good year.

Chris
Chris, if you spend enough time out there you'll find one. But I think it'd be a lot more exciting to get one down where you've been seing those garters. There are records from down there and that's a pretty expansive bottomland with relatively few roads and not much urbanization. I'll probably hit the fattwater next week if you and Matthijs want to join.
justinm wrote:You really threw me for a few loops with all these great finds. I didn't expect to see so many Salamanders, nor did I expect to see a Crawfish Frog from Texas. I really need to get to Texas and find anything. The diversity was really outstanding, thanks for sharing.
Those Crawfish frogs were a huge suprise and very exciting for the few of us that managed to see them after that rain event. I believe they were the first from the Katy Prairie area since the early 80's. Anytime you're in Texas feel free to get in touch.
dickbartlett wrote:Great photography, wonderful variety, Scott.
Taxidea = one of my favorite mammals. Its disposition is very similar to one of my long time field companions<LOL>
Gotta say though, your avatar is my favorite pic of all! Cheers/Dick
Thanks, Dick. Suprisingly enough this was the most placid badger i've ever encountered. I even crawled down into its burrow a little ways to snap that picture and it never exhibited any signs of agression. In contrast the ones I would find on the road when I lived in McAllen exhibited characteristics similar to those of our un-named friend. Those Rhinos are tough, it took me three hurricanes before I timed it just right.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

~Scott
TimCO
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Re: Planes, Trains and Gartermobiles

Post by TimCO »

Those reticulatus are badass.
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