Field herping thread

[infernalis]

Rules are as follows. All photographs are to be of wild herps in native surroundings.
No pets on the lawn pictures, no zoo pictures.

I will lead the way with a few field pics from 2012 of my own.

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/frog.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/gart1.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/gartage.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/garter.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/garter1.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/Gsnake.jpg

[infernalis]

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/milksnake.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/nerodia.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/nerodia1.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/storeria.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/storeria1.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/toad.jpg

[Zach_Lim]

Gravid Northern Rubber Boa (Charina bottae)- San Mateo county, CA
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/oi_clockworkorange_oi/Herping2012010-4.jpg

[infernalis]

Very nice!

Found these two under a board today while walking my dogs out back.

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/twosnakes.jpg

It was a perfect morning too, the fog was clinging to the hill, breathtaking.

http://www.thamnophis.co/herping/fog.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

Nice S.dekayi. Love the little brown snakes.

[infernalis]

What's keeping you Steve, surely you have some wild radix pics from your back yard??

[guidofatherof5]

I will work on it.

[Zach_Lim]

Western Yellow Bellied Racers (Coluber constrictor mormon)- San Mateo county, CA
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/oi_clockworkorange_oi/Herping2012009-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/oi_clockworkorange_oi/1714-large-lampropeltis_zonata_multifasciata.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/oi_clockworkorange_oi/1768-large-diadophis_punctatus_amabilis.jpg

[Invisible Snake]

Great pictures!

Is that a typical posture for ring-neck snakes to put their tails into a corkscrew?

[-MARWOLAETH-]

With all those great herps around you, how can you Americans resist keeping them all?:)

[infernalis]

With all those great herps around you, how can you Americans resist keeping them all?:)

For me it is very easy. There is no greater satisfaction than observing them in the wild and witnesing the natural life cycle unfold, It's a thrill each spring when they begin showing up, it's an even greater thill when they feed, reproduce and then encountering their offspring.

[kueluck]

68586859686068616862

[kueluck]

68636864

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Nice pics Gail! I love the brown water snake and the cottonmouth.

[kueluck]

It's the best part of camping. I've got tons of photo's where I'm holding different reptiles/amphibians, but I don't think that counts so I didn't post them.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

68636864

Very nice timber/canebrake.

[Zach_Lim]

Great pictures!

Is that a typical posture for ring-neck snakes to put their tails into a corkscrew?

Yes, that is a typical defensive position/posture for Diadophis. They musk as well.

[Natrix]

6967696869696970

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Nice adders.And that female slow worm is way bigger than the ones I've seen:cool:

[Natrix]

Nice adders.And that female slow worm is way bigger than the ones I've seen:cool:69716972 Took these last year. This one was fully grown

[EasternGirl]

Love all the pics! I really need to get out and find a place around here where there are a variety of snakes. I know we have timbers, copperheads, cottonmouths, ringnecks....all kinds of different species...but I only see easterns. Not that there is anything wrong with seeing an eastern!

[Light of Dae]

Saw two little frogs the other day in my yard :)
6978

6979

[guidofatherof5]

Nice job.

[ProXimuS]

Awesome pics guys:D

[infernalis]

Saw this Dekayi while doing the A.M. dog walk...


http://www.thamnophis.us/wild/dekayi.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

Is it just me or is that dekayi looking lean.

[infernalis]

They are all looking lean this year Steve. The drought did a number on food availability.

[kueluck]

Is that a Boreal Chorus Frog? I LOVE frogs and toads.
Saw two little frogs the other day in my yard :)
6978

6979

[Light of Dae]

Is that a Boreal Chorus Frog? I LOVE frogs and toads.

I do believe thats what they are. :)

I miss living in Manitoba for all the frogs n toads n snakes there. As a kid I used to catch the Northern Green Leopard Frog all the time, knowing it was on the endangered list I (as a kid) did my best to help out. lol We had this old 'hot tub shell' that we had used for swimming in but after my birthday pool party in June it got turned into my own 'frog protection pool' Had to admit, it worked very well. I had those frogs breeding in there and thriving! It was awesome. I got to watch them n nothing could get in or out.

I only had one death... It was my fault... lol We had a 'family' of garters under our trailer and I loved petting the biggest one. Well I got the idea... I wonder if they can swim? So I picked up big momma n put her in the froggie pool... She swam on top for half a minute then went under... I stared intensely into the dark water(I had added plenty of dirt n logs) Then I saw her Up from under the water, she came up right in front of a frog on a log and ate it! Up and got half its body in her mouth at first then took it underwater.... The rest of her body sliding over the log.

I was so shocked lol(what did I expect really?)

I said NO WAY n promptly removed mama snake lol I was protecting these frogs not making supper lol
I did dig up some worms n put the clump of dirt with the worms by the opening to under out trailer.


Ahh yes I took care of my wildlife lol

[infernalis]

http://www.thamnophis.us/wild/milkie.jpg

[snake man]

Nice find.

[ProXimuS]

That one looks kinda like your new baby, Wayne.:)

[joeyjoe9876]

not my pic, but a friend of mine had found this out in Radford, VA earlier and had posted it on facebook.
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/73952_517320341628861_1176464565_n.jpg

[infernalis]

That one looks kinda like your new baby, Wayne.

Entirely different species. The last picture was the only neonate Lampropeltis I have seen all year, come to think of it, I only saw a total of three all season long. That's unusually thin, I normally photograph dozens of them.

Here is just some of the ones I took last summer..

http://www.thamnophis.us/snakers/milksnake.jpg

http://www.reptard.info/521/milk1.jpg

http://www.reptard.info/521/rattlemilk.jpg

http://www.thamnophis.co/herp/milk2.jpg

http://www.reptard.info/2011Herp/milk.jpg

http://www.reptard.info/2011Herp/stare.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

Love that last photo. That eastern looks like she's going to blow.

[infernalis]

Love that last photo. That eastern looks like she's going to blow.

That milk snake harassed her for a few minutes.. I did my best to not interfere..

http://www.reptard.info/2011Herp/duo.jpg

http://www.reptard.info/2011Herp/face.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

She's a good looking Eastern.

[snake man]

They look big, how big did you think they were at the time?

[chris-uk]

That milk snake harassed her for a few minutes.. I did my best to not interfere..

http://www.reptard.info/2011Herp/duo.jpg



I'm not familiar with how efficient milk snakes are, could the milk snake have actually made a meal of the eastern girl? There doesn't look like there's a big enough size differential, but I don't know what size prey a milk snake can successfully eat.

[johnc79@hotmail.com]

A young female adder for a DNA survey I helped out with. Have better photos on laptop somewhere .
http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk252/johnc79/3087D986-01A3-4EDF-A7DE-2647E17F91BB-5840-000005958BECD0B8.jpg

[guidofatherof5]

Looks gravid or is that defense puffing?

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Good find.I love the juvenile colour scheme.:)

[johnc79@hotmail.com]

Looks gravid or is that defense puffing?

Defensive . She was very small. Just over a year was the estimated age. It's quite rare to find young in recent years and midlands adder populations are in trouble! :(

[infernalis]

I'm not familiar with how efficient milk snakes are, could the milk snake have actually made a meal of the eastern girl? There doesn't look like there's a big enough size differential, but I don't know what size prey a milk snake can successfully eat.

There is no way that milk snake could have successfully eaten the garter snake, and they both know that.

[nitrogen15]

I went to Mexico recently and took several snapshots of spiny-tailed iguanas. I think they're all Ctenosaura similis with a lot of phenotypic variation. I could be wrong though because there are 15 species in this genus.

82538254

82558256

[guidofatherof5]

Can't see the photos. Here's the forum message.

http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/invalid.png

Can you separate the attachments? Put them on separate lines.
Just an idea.

[nitrogen15]

Photo post attempt #2! Thanks for the suggestion to put them on separate lines. That seemed to be the issue.

8257
8258
8259
8260

[Invisible Snake]

Photo post attempt #2! Thanks for the suggestion to put them on separate lines. That seemed to be the issue.

8257
8258
8259
8260

Cool iggys!

[guidofatherof5]

Good photos. Glad you made it work. Thanks for the post.

[blazenbs]

These are some awesome pics. Im going to have to bring my camera next time I go out

[ProXimuS]

Went and saw my first snakes of the year the other day :D

10359 10360
Two Mississippi green water snakes and a Diamondback water snake, and a turtle (I think a red eared slider)

Wasn't too happy to see this guy though

10361 10362

I saw this one and one just like it the day before I took the pictures. He's not dead, just in horrible shape. Anybody seen anything like this? Is this the Snake Fungal Disease does anyone know?

[guidofatherof5]

SFD was my first thought but I'm not sure. Contact your local DNR/Wildlife authority and share the photo.
https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/other_diseases/snake_fungal_disease.jsp

[jwolfe152]

Yea i would share the pic and see if it was geocoded(had gps coordinates embedded) to get a better idea of where it lives/roams. I have been out walking every nice day this past week and NOT A SINGLE SNAKE SIGHTING I'm just wondering if there are snakes anywhere around lol but I'm going to my sisters house in a fe.w hours to washer my nieces and nephew and they live in a higher elevation I'm hoping to flip some rocks and find some snakes...hell i was up there last Wednesday and in an hour we found some 15 salamanders flipping rock nowhere near water it was all leaf litter and under one rock was at least 8-10 of the 15 or so we found. My oldest nieces almost flipped out when i called her over and she seen how many was there it was a good time

[slipknot711]

Went for a hike (no pictures sorry) this weekend. Saw 19 painted turtles all on the same log basking. Was great to see as its only been over 50 maybe 3 times so far this year. No snakes yet tho :/. lots of salamanders and some crayfish. My friend saved a hatchling painted near his house so spring is upon us!!!!!!! cant wait to go herping! I wish I knew of more places in RI, Conn, and Mass to go explore.