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aSnakeLovinBabe
08-16-2009, 01:16 PM
Hey guys! I was away for a week's stay in the poconos at arrowhead lake and did some herping around the region... no hypo's this time but still had a great time!!! Only 2 snakes were found where I caught the hypo, the rest were found at brady's lake, which is a very nice and VERY remote lake which, if you are in shape and with a good mountain bike you can bike all the way around. We went halfway and turned around because a stream had swelled crossing the path and we did not feel like biking through knee deep water. We found:

approximately 395739485 toads
approximately 224545 frogs
2 red eft eastern newts
14 gravid female eastern garters where do all the males go?!?!
3 male garters
16 female red bellied snakes, most gravid
1 male red bellied snake
2 male smooth green snakes (YAY)
6 ringnecked snakes
7 northern water snakes

we herped the woods long and hard for eastern hoggies which were recently sited in the area, as well as black rats, racers, copperheads, timber rattlers, and worm snakes but no luck on any of those! We were supposed to go herp the bushkill area but we were too sore from the intense hours of biking, boating, and lifting heavy things. But overall it was still a wonderful time which made up for the absolutely terrible trip to the farm (not even worth mentioning, we found like, 6 snakes and none were even gravid! weather was messed up this year there)

I of course, harassed some of these herps for some great photo's before putting everyone back where I found them! The green snake, along with finding all three color phases of red bellies made my day! The dominant coloration in this area was the reddish brown phase, with only 2 silvers and 1 silver w/ brown stripe found. While there I found the largest eastern garter I have ever caught. An absolutely gargantuan gravid female that even made most water snakes look puny! She was almost as thick as my wrist!!! In some of the photo's you can see her next to the average sized adult female eastern and next to a full grown red belly! On top of that, she did not have a mean bone in her body!!!


http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090348.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090351.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090366.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090371.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090387.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090394.jpg

aSnakeLovinBabe
08-16-2009, 01:17 PM
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090404.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090423.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090459.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090460.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090468.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090470.jpg

aSnakeLovinBabe
08-16-2009, 01:17 PM
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090481.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090488.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090500.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090500.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090503.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P10905061.jpg

aSnakeLovinBabe
08-16-2009, 01:18 PM
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090513.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090514.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll86/aSnakeLovinBabe/Herping/P1090518.jpg

ianrambell
08-16-2009, 01:22 PM
love the newts Do you keep any of the wild caught snakes you find?

aSnakeLovinBabe
08-16-2009, 01:23 PM
not this time!!!

ianrambell
08-16-2009, 01:25 PM
I wish I could find that stuff lol. I guess I have my black necks.

Mom2Four
08-16-2009, 03:25 PM
WOW amazing photos.. cool finds..

gregmonsta
08-16-2009, 03:33 PM
Great stuff :D

guidofatherof5
08-16-2009, 04:17 PM
Excellent Photos. Looks like a good time.

sirtalis01
08-16-2009, 04:41 PM
nice finds...i need to do some herping up north...where im at in Queens NY i only find easter garters.

jitami
08-16-2009, 05:54 PM
Excellent pics as usual Shannon! Love the green... and that newt on top of the log, alone, facing the camera is just the cutest thing ever! Great photography!

tspuckler
08-16-2009, 06:28 PM
Hi Shannon,

Those first two Green Snake photos are killer! Did you get a measurement on the big Garter? It looks huge. Are you sure it wasn't an Anaconda?

I don't know if you've ever found an Eastern Hognose before, but that can be quite difficult to locate and often it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

My students searched a sandy area crawling with toads (good habitat for hognose) three years in a row at a Marine Science Consortium before we finally hit the jackpot last year and found two within 15 minutes of each other.

At any rate, late Summer herping usually isn't as productive as Spring herping, so I'd say you found a decent variety of stuff.

E. Hognose as found:
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii204/tspuckler/hog1.jpg

Doing the "dead" thing:

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii204/tspuckler/hog5.jpg

One very satisfied instructor and students:
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii204/tspuckler/estudents.jpg

Snaky
08-18-2009, 09:49 AM
Nice finds! :)

ssssnakeluvr
08-18-2009, 11:09 AM
nice pics!!! sounds like and awesome trip!!!!

Snake lover 3-25
08-18-2009, 06:10 PM
awesome pics!!!!!!!:)

charles parenteau
08-18-2009, 08:23 PM
VEry nice trip Shannon ,love all your pictures especially the one with the smooth green and diadophis....

mustang
08-18-2009, 08:25 PM
i love those snakes!!! good job

Steven@HumboldtHerps
11-26-2009, 03:01 AM
Wow! I missed those! great pics!

ConcinusMan
11-26-2009, 03:22 AM
So did I. Glad you bumped. Shannon is so talented! what an awesome photographer!

mustang
11-27-2009, 04:58 PM
take me to this magical place!...i can really see u having a honeymoon or somthn here god knows i would!