Search found 604 matches

by Jeff
November 8th, 2023, 2:56 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: January-September 2022 Herping (PICTURE HEAVY)
Replies: 4
Views: 2548

Re: January-September 2022 Herping (PICTURE HEAVY)

Jefferson Your four recent posts were fantastic - really enjoyable. Those sorts of trips that we made back in the 70s and 80s are locked away in slides and field notes. I need to get a slide scanner. I skimmed through a couple of your videos as well and recognized the voice of my old counterpart in ...
by Jeff
August 12th, 2023, 4:37 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: The year of exploration. 2018 review.
Replies: 15
Views: 14311

Re: The year of exploration. 2018 review.

From a Californian, temporarily (31 years) exiled to Louisiana: words cannot describe. Friends of mine and I got some great photos, including what we called "habitat shots". like your Kern Canyon Slender with the mountainous backdrop. All were taken with slide film, using a 28 mm polarized...
by Jeff
June 25th, 2023, 3:02 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: January 2023 Herping in the Southeast
Replies: 5
Views: 3764

Re: January 2023 Herping in the Southeast

Noah
This is great - vicariously enjoying the winter herpetofauna around Atlanta. The shots of the habitat really make a difference between posts like yours vs. others that just show posed critters. Oh, and thanks for the great shots of posed critters.
And, thanks for keeping FHF on life support.
Jeff
by Jeff
May 16th, 2023, 8:50 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Questions about Coluber constrictor mormon
Replies: 7
Views: 3522

Re: Questions about Coluber constrictor mormon

If you are going to the site of the old (1920s) record in eastern Arizona, I lived in that town for most of a year. In fact I lived a little above on a long dirt road through pastures and riparian areas. But, despite running up and down the road a couple hundred times, and searching all over the reg...
by Jeff
May 1st, 2023, 3:54 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Cool light rain, Nice day to see Red Efts out and about in SE NY
Replies: 2
Views: 1554

Re: Cool light rain, Nice day to see Red Efts out and about in SE NY

Thanks Cebus
The "efts" in Louisiana are dull orange in the hilly parts, but dull olive-brown in the swamplands.
I enjoyed the three photos. Any photos of the habitat?
Jeff
by Jeff
April 12th, 2023, 6:04 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Rain, Rain, and More Rain in Northwest California!
Replies: 9
Views: 2559

Re: Rain, Rain, and More Rain in Northwest California!

Really great Will! I made a few winter trips up that way when I lived in San Jose. At Jedediah Smith there was one particular log - big flat slab - that lay on a film of water over gravel, under which, in one flip, was a giant salamander, slenders (oddly), torrent, Del Norte, and painted ensatina (o...
by Jeff
February 9th, 2023, 3:40 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Ventral markings of Milk Snakes
Replies: 2
Views: 1345

Re: Ventral markings of Milk Snakes

I don't know of any single source that shows the variation in milk snake ventral patterns. The 15-20 'red' milks that I've seen were variable in both dorsal and ventral patterns, but none had a pure white venter. Have you considered that your white-bellied milk might be a scarlet snake, Cemophora co...
by Jeff
January 31st, 2023, 4:35 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: May 2022 - Part 2: California
Replies: 7
Views: 2715

Re: May 2022 - Part 2: California

Mark This is a great post! For any of the three people left on FHF, I repeat that I'm from California, mostly San Jose, and had an unending fascination with the herpetofauna of the state. Trips to the southern Sierra and Tejon/Cuyama regions were uncommon but always a blessing. What fascinated me ab...
by Jeff
January 4th, 2023, 3:02 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Small Tallahassee post
Replies: 2
Views: 119149

Re: Small Tallahassee post

Xabier
Probably a little warmer there than straight west in Baton Rouge - I didn't even try.
Your first two frogs are a Greenhouse Frog followed by a Southern Cricket Frog, so two species, not one.
Jeff
by Jeff
November 23rd, 2022, 12:33 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Northern Italy
Replies: 1
Views: 1511

Re: Northern Italy

Excellent good fortune!
The second-to-last photo could be taken in my backyard in Louisiana - a log lined with Trachemys scripta.
Jeff
by Jeff
November 17th, 2022, 4:48 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: ID help for Cuban amphibian
Replies: 1
Views: 1290

Re: ID help for Cuban amphibian

A juvenile Cuban Toad, Peltophryne peltacephala........is my guess.
Jeff
by Jeff
November 15th, 2022, 3:57 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Elevation for Vipera latastei?
Replies: 4
Views: 1656

Re: Elevation for Vipera latastei?

Thanks very much for the reply! It is a very rare occurrence at FHF to receive a result when assistance is offered.
To the One Percent!
Jeff
by Jeff
October 30th, 2022, 2:45 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: EASTERN GHATS 2022 Monsoon Report (several FHF firsts, big post)
Replies: 7
Views: 2723

Re: EASTERN GHATS 2022 Monsoon Report (several FHF firsts, big post)

Mirza This is a very nice post of a place that we should know much more about considering the colonial nature of natural history explorations dating from pre-Linnean times. Your first photo tells me a lot about the countryside of the eastern Ghats, opposite the usual photos that we in the USA get of...
by Jeff
October 22nd, 2022, 4:44 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Oregon Salamander ID?
Replies: 3
Views: 1396

Re: Oregon Salamander ID?

Southern Torrent Salamander for me
Jeff
by Jeff
October 1st, 2022, 3:07 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Elevation for Vipera latastei?
Replies: 4
Views: 1656

Re: Elevation for Vipera latastei?

According to Juan Pleguezuelos, 70 percent of latastei records in Iberia are above 800 m.
Jeff
by Jeff
August 26th, 2022, 3:48 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: An American in Florence
Replies: 1
Views: 717

Re: An American in Florence

by Jeff
July 29th, 2022, 3:52 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Southeast Arizona 7/23-7/25
Replies: 9
Views: 8308

Re: Southeast Arizona 7/23-7/25

The paucity of snakes may be an unfortunate trend. On my first several trips to south-central Arizona (1978-1981) my companions and I found 20 species but did not locate 13. I am considering the zone from Ajo and Organ Pipe to Nogales and Tucson. A couple of trips in the late 1980s were very poor, a...
by Jeff
July 14th, 2022, 3:02 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Florida 2022
Replies: 1
Views: 825

Re: Florida 2022

TJB It seems that the previous 72 viewers of your post were left speechless! I enjoyed seeing your finds, just as I would expect to find them - poking out of bushes, or by flashlight beam coming onto roads. My last quickie trip to Florida in 2015 was poorer than I expected, but I guess that is how F...
by Jeff
June 28th, 2022, 4:50 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Herping Greece for the first time (snakes included!)
Replies: 4
Views: 2781

Re: Herping Greece for the first time (snakes included!)

It appears that the sheltopusik trick of throwing its tail did not fool the snake eagle!
Thanks for the tour.
Jeff
by Jeff
June 27th, 2022, 3:07 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: May 2022 - Part 1: Oregon with Richard
Replies: 11
Views: 2433

Re: May 2022 - Part 1: Oregon with Richard

One thing that you didn't mention about Richard is that he does (or at least has) counted scales on all of the boas that he marks. I mean, he counts the tiny scale rows around the midbody, and the ventrals and the subcaudals on squirmy, live snakes -hundreds of them. I've tried it twice! (Also the l...
by Jeff
June 17th, 2022, 3:19 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Mountain Kingsnakes Climbing Trees?
Replies: 10
Views: 2138

Re: Mountain Kingsnakes Climbing Trees?

The highest pyromelana I've ever seen was on top of a giant boulder, but none in trees. Donald Hahn told me of an incident in Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona. He asked a fisherman if he had seen any snakes, and the fisherman pointed up into the tree next to them. "Just that one" he said. It was ...
by Jeff
June 11th, 2022, 10:38 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Massachusetts Timber
Replies: 13
Views: 4317

Re: Massachusetts Timber

That is a very different-looking Timber! Here in Louisiana they're always yellow or beige.
I was impressed by the strange black one's from New Hampshire that are shown in Al Braswell's "Timber Rattlesnake Conservation Action Plan." Yours is close.
Jeff
by Jeff
June 11th, 2022, 10:32 am
Forum: The Forum
Topic: MD montanus
Replies: 3
Views: 790

Re: MD montanus

Fantastic! Here in Louisiana they are still known from two sites that are similar to those you describe, minus the skunk cabbage. I last saw one at a site in 2007, but much hard work since has failed to find another there. The second site produces them on occasion, though it seems the harder you wor...
by Jeff
April 21st, 2022, 7:32 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Massachusetts Amphibian Madness
Replies: 3
Views: 926

Re: Massachusetts Amphibian Madness

That is a very nice assembly of critters. I lived in MA from mid 1966 to mid 1968 (elementary school) and saw seven of the species that you portrayed. Decades later I am in Louisiana, and I can tell you that the marbled and spotted salamanders, and peepers, are very different in color and pattern do...
by Jeff
March 18th, 2022, 2:52 pm
Forum: Reading Room
Topic: [NEW BOOK] A FIELD GUIDE TO THE SNAKES & OTHER REPTILES OF KWAZULU-NATAL
Replies: 2
Views: 1443

Re: [NEW BOOK] A FIELD GUIDE TO THE SNAKES & OTHER REPTILES OF KWAZULU-NATAL

How does a guy get a real copy? Amazon only has kindle.
Jeff
by Jeff
January 13th, 2022, 8:11 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: "Cruise Herping" in the Caribbean
Replies: 3
Views: 2257

Re: "Cruise Herping" in the Caribbean

hcarlton I watched the video with interest, never having been further south than Orlando. Your populated-places and tourist-spots locales didn't get the excitement meter much beyond 'ho-hum mode', but that is expected in disturbed ports-of-call. At least you showed us what to expect when one steps o...
by Jeff
December 22nd, 2021, 3:23 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: 2021 wrap up (Huge post, lotsa pics)
Replies: 6
Views: 1487

Re: 2021 wrap up (Huge post, lotsa pics)

Zeev This post is fantastic. Every picture has a story, and they all remind me of my few experiences in southern California in the 1960s-1980s. The brown drought is awful, and I know what you mean about it should be green. Owen and I herped during the horrible 1977 drought in central California, whi...
by Jeff
December 15th, 2021, 4:30 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Oregon's horned lizards
Replies: 8
Views: 1630

Re: Oregon's horned lizards

mrfrasier Pygmies are the one reptile of the Pacific Northwest that I have not seen. My Dad lives in Medford (I'm in Louisiana), and on my first of two driving trips to visit him I planned to see a Pygmy. I located an area in southern Lake County that was plastered with localities. To top that, an i...
by Jeff
December 12th, 2021, 6:48 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
Replies: 24
Views: 4299

Re: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷

Were any garter snakes out on the spadefoot night?
Jeff
by Jeff
December 3rd, 2021, 3:19 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
Replies: 24
Views: 4299

Re: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷

Not an adder, though.
Vipera seoanei?
by Jeff
December 2nd, 2021, 4:42 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
Replies: 24
Views: 4299

Re: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷

Krismunk
Finding an Adder lying out on a gray day reminds me of finding Massassaugas up north. You need the right spot, right conditions (cold and windy), and keep looking.
by Jeff
November 27th, 2021, 3:40 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
Replies: 24
Views: 4299

Re: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷

On the springtime in California theme...
A Northern Pacific Rattlesnake in the Diablo Range in the late 1980s.

Image
by Jeff
November 21st, 2021, 7:43 pm
Forum: Reading Room
Topic: Calamaria of Borneo
Replies: 2
Views: 1581

Re: Calamaria of Borneo

Björn

I am
1- very interested in identification of Bornean Calamaria, and
2- a person who does not have a cell phone.
But, I trust that your app will prove to be very useful.
Thanks,

Jeff
by Jeff
November 20th, 2021, 4:17 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Herping In An Indian Mangrove Forest (pic heavy)
Replies: 7
Views: 2380

Re: Herping In An Indian Mangrove Forest (pic heavy)

Mirza Thanks very much for this interesting trip. That is amazing footwear, blue and yellow crocs for strolling about the mangroves! The mangroves and root projections, and mud, look like our cypress swamps in Louisiana. Also like Louisiana in summer one doesn't see much until dark. One difference i...
by Jeff
November 9th, 2021, 8:06 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Map turtle ID request
Replies: 2
Views: 535

Re: Map turtle ID request

KS
I downloaded and magnified the photo, which in that view suggests Ouachitas based on an apparent yellow block behind each eye (though greatly reflected in the upper turtle).
Jeff
by Jeff
November 4th, 2021, 3:37 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Tips for finding Salamanders in AR
Replies: 4
Views: 924

Re: Tips for finding Salamanders in AR

No herping down here - a cold front today plunged temperature to 67. You got 58 views. Considering that 55 were by you, the other three people didn't have a response. I have never sought salamanders in Arkansas, but when I strike north to the Ouachitas I shall make note of some of the species I woul...
by Jeff
October 18th, 2021, 5:54 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Snake headscale diagram request?
Replies: 23
Views: 5821

Re: Snake headscale diagram request?

Porter
A sample from Wright and Wright --
Image

Here is a link to a paper on Lampropeltini phylogeny: https://sierraherps.com/wp-content/uplo ... _2009a.pdf

Jeff
by Jeff
October 15th, 2021, 4:09 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Snake headscale diagram request?
Replies: 23
Views: 5821

Re: Snake headscale diagram request?

Porter Exact, proportional drawings of head scales of all U.S. snake genera plus many species in each are in the introduction to Wright & Wright (1957) Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada. https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Snakes-United-States-Canada/dp/0801482143/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=...
by Jeff
October 14th, 2021, 4:26 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Folsom CA Tarantula inquiry
Replies: 2
Views: 819

Re: Folsom CA Tarantula inquiry

Porter
Believe it or not, it's Aphonopelma johnnycashi, and here is a link to the monograph in which it is described, along with localities: https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/6264/

Jeff
by Jeff
October 6th, 2021, 7:37 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: One more metamorph ID post
Replies: 12
Views: 3609

Re: One more metamorph ID post

I tried to find on-line photos of northwestern Woodhouse's toads with no luck, so I hope you can get a copy of Leonard's book. I have not seen an ontogenetic series of woodhousei from the intermountain west, so I don't know what changes occur in cranial morphology and when they occur. My observation...
by Jeff
October 6th, 2021, 6:56 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Quick day trip to the desert
Replies: 11
Views: 4244

Re: Quick day trip to the desert

Sidewinder.png
This is my favorite sidewinder art, from the epilogue of Raymond B. Cowles' "Desert Journal: Reflections of a Naturalist", published in 1977, two years after Cowles' passing. I left the wording on the page for pertinence after nearly 50 years of prescience.
by Jeff
October 6th, 2021, 4:18 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Quick day trip to the desert
Replies: 11
Views: 4244

Re: Quick day trip to the desert

GH Those are the nice finds - the ones that take a little side effort to find and then the reward. Decades back I would occasionally find brush lizards if I banged into a creosote just right, but years later discovered that they are on every telephone pole in the Mojave! On a trip to the Mojave in 1...
by Jeff
September 28th, 2021, 3:12 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Help with ID - Yucatan, Mexico
Replies: 15
Views: 5884

Re: Help with ID - Yucatan, Mexico

I looked at the anolis photo a couple of weeks back but didn't have an answer. It's of the Norops clade (which includes sagrei as Kelly postulated), and could be any of the three listed in the original message based on general morphology and locality. But, my knowledge of these anoles ends there. In...
by Jeff
September 22nd, 2021, 5:13 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: One more metamorph ID post
Replies: 12
Views: 3609

Re: One more metamorph ID post

After a much more careful look I believe the first toad is woodhousii and the second 'could' be boreas. I've seen grown boreas boreas in N California, Washington and Montana, but have a backup of having seen hundreds of small boreas halophilus in California. I've seen woodhousii/fowleri across their...
by Jeff
September 17th, 2021, 3:40 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Joshua Tree/Anza-Borrego
Replies: 2
Views: 727

Re: Joshua Tree/Anza-Borrego

mid-September is usually poor in the Mojave, so your finds may be routine for current time of year and conditions.
Jeff
by Jeff
September 17th, 2021, 3:36 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: One more metamorph ID post
Replies: 12
Views: 3609

Re: One more metamorph ID post

It does take some growth to get the cranial crests to appear - expect them next spring.
Your toads are typical Woodhouse's,
and, thanks for the update - much appreciated.
Jeff
by Jeff
September 3rd, 2021, 3:56 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: 2020-2021 Highlights
Replies: 4
Views: 3173

Re: 2020-2021 Highlights

I very much enjoy this post - a good smattering of southwestern herpetofauna - some common, some not. I'm happy to see the Sonoran Horned Lizard and Mohawk Dunes fringetoe. I've seen one of each, but not when they were known to be distinct species, in 1978 and 1989, respectively. I got photos of nei...
by Jeff
August 22nd, 2021, 3:30 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Arizona Vacation
Replies: 3
Views: 3003

Re: Arizona Vacation

Jon In case you haven't received any private input on your Arizona trip: desert is best in the morning, but go uphill during the heat of the day. For bugs, bring a sheet and black light. Hit little-traveled blacktops at night for snakes, centipedes, and maybe a mountain lion. Also, follow any rainst...
by Jeff
August 9th, 2021, 6:21 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: Help with ID - Yucatan, Mexico
Replies: 15
Views: 5884

Re: Help with ID - Yucatan, Mexico

1 Smilisca baudini
4 Dendropsophus microcephalus ?
5 Leptodactylus melanonotus
6 Incilius valliceps
7 Scinax staufferi ?

Maybe some help here...

Jeff
by Jeff
July 20th, 2021, 6:56 pm
Forum: The Forum
Topic: July 2020 to July 2021 Herping (Missouri, Louisiana, Michigan)
Replies: 3
Views: 2496

Re: July 2020 to July 2021 Herping (Missouri, Louisiana, Michigan)

Nathan I enjoy your writing style - kept me reading through to the end rather than periodically breaking off to work on manuscripts. First, a 'giant' pygmy, wow! "Smoke hung like an airborne blanket in the room" Up in Natchitoches I once requested the cheapest room at a motel. I think mayb...