Search found 604 matches
- November 8th, 2023, 2:56 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: January-September 2022 Herping (PICTURE HEAVY)
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2631
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 ...
- August 12th, 2023, 4:37 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: The year of exploration. 2018 review.
- Replies: 15
- Views: 14412
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...
- June 25th, 2023, 3:02 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: January 2023 Herping in the Southeast
- Replies: 5
- Views: 3845
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
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
- May 16th, 2023, 8:50 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Questions about Coluber constrictor mormon
- Replies: 7
- Views: 3601
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...
- 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: 1579
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
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
- April 12th, 2023, 6:04 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Rain, Rain, and More Rain in Northwest California!
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2620
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...
- February 9th, 2023, 3:40 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Ventral markings of Milk Snakes
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1350
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...
- January 31st, 2023, 4:35 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: May 2022 - Part 2: California
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2741
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...
- January 4th, 2023, 3:02 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Small Tallahassee post
- Replies: 2
- Views: 119158
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
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
- November 23rd, 2022, 12:33 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Northern Italy
- Replies: 1
- Views: 1528
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
The second-to-last photo could be taken in my backyard in Louisiana - a log lined with Trachemys scripta.
Jeff
- November 17th, 2022, 4:48 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: ID help for Cuban amphibian
- Replies: 1
- Views: 1295
Re: ID help for Cuban amphibian
A juvenile Cuban Toad, Peltophryne peltacephala........is my guess.
Jeff
Jeff
- November 15th, 2022, 3:57 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Elevation for Vipera latastei?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1683
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
To the One Percent!
Jeff
- October 30th, 2022, 2:45 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: EASTERN GHATS 2022 Monsoon Report (several FHF firsts, big post)
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2741
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...
- October 22nd, 2022, 4:44 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Oregon Salamander ID?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1407
Re: Oregon Salamander ID?
Southern Torrent Salamander for me
Jeff
Jeff
- October 1st, 2022, 3:07 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Elevation for Vipera latastei?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 1683
Re: Elevation for Vipera latastei?
According to Juan Pleguezuelos, 70 percent of latastei records in Iberia are above 800 m.
Jeff
Jeff
- August 26th, 2022, 3:48 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: An American in Florence
- Replies: 1
- Views: 724
- July 29th, 2022, 3:52 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Southeast Arizona 7/23-7/25
- Replies: 9
- Views: 8317
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...
- July 14th, 2022, 3:02 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Florida 2022
- Replies: 1
- Views: 829
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...
- June 28th, 2022, 4:50 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Herping Greece for the first time (snakes included!)
- Replies: 4
- Views: 2832
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
Thanks for the tour.
Jeff
- June 27th, 2022, 3:07 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: May 2022 - Part 1: Oregon with Richard
- Replies: 11
- Views: 2482
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...
- June 17th, 2022, 3:19 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Mountain Kingsnakes Climbing Trees?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2202
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 ...
- June 11th, 2022, 10:38 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Massachusetts Timber
- Replies: 13
- Views: 4423
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
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
- June 11th, 2022, 10:32 am
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: MD montanus
- Replies: 3
- Views: 800
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...
- April 21st, 2022, 7:32 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Massachusetts Amphibian Madness
- Replies: 3
- Views: 939
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...
- 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: 1478
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
Jeff
- January 13th, 2022, 8:11 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: "Cruise Herping" in the Caribbean
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2289
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...
- December 22nd, 2021, 3:23 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: 2021 wrap up (Huge post, lotsa pics)
- Replies: 6
- Views: 1513
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...
- December 15th, 2021, 4:30 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Oregon's horned lizards
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1656
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...
- December 12th, 2021, 6:48 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
- Replies: 24
- Views: 4321
Re: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
Were any garter snakes out on the spadefoot night?
Jeff
Jeff
- December 3rd, 2021, 3:19 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
- Replies: 24
- Views: 4321
Re: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
Vipera seoanei?Not an adder, though.
- December 2nd, 2021, 4:42 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
- Replies: 24
- Views: 4321
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.
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.
- November 27th, 2021, 3:40 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: The ADD YOUR photos to this photo-post POST 📷
- Replies: 24
- Views: 4321
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.
A Northern Pacific Rattlesnake in the Diablo Range in the late 1980s.
- November 21st, 2021, 7:43 pm
- Forum: Reading Room
- Topic: Calamaria of Borneo
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1624
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
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
- November 20th, 2021, 4:17 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Herping In An Indian Mangrove Forest (pic heavy)
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2412
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...
- November 9th, 2021, 8:06 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Map turtle ID request
- Replies: 2
- Views: 538
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
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
- November 4th, 2021, 3:37 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Tips for finding Salamanders in AR
- Replies: 4
- Views: 933
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...
- October 18th, 2021, 5:54 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Snake headscale diagram request?
- Replies: 23
- Views: 5919
Re: Snake headscale diagram request?
Porter
A sample from Wright and Wright --
Here is a link to a paper on Lampropeltini phylogeny: https://sierraherps.com/wp-content/uplo ... _2009a.pdf
Jeff
A sample from Wright and Wright --
Here is a link to a paper on Lampropeltini phylogeny: https://sierraherps.com/wp-content/uplo ... _2009a.pdf
Jeff
- October 15th, 2021, 4:09 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Snake headscale diagram request?
- Replies: 23
- Views: 5919
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=...
- October 14th, 2021, 4:26 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Folsom CA Tarantula inquiry
- Replies: 2
- Views: 829
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
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
- October 6th, 2021, 7:37 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: One more metamorph ID post
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3678
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...
- October 6th, 2021, 6:56 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Quick day trip to the desert
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4341
Re: Quick day trip to the desert
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.
- October 6th, 2021, 4:18 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Quick day trip to the desert
- Replies: 11
- Views: 4341
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...
- September 28th, 2021, 3:12 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Help with ID - Yucatan, Mexico
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5973
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...
- September 22nd, 2021, 5:13 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: One more metamorph ID post
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3678
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...
- September 17th, 2021, 3:40 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Joshua Tree/Anza-Borrego
- Replies: 2
- Views: 738
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
Jeff
- September 17th, 2021, 3:36 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: One more metamorph ID post
- Replies: 12
- Views: 3678
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
Your toads are typical Woodhouse's,
and, thanks for the update - much appreciated.
Jeff
- September 3rd, 2021, 3:56 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: 2020-2021 Highlights
- Replies: 4
- Views: 3191
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...
- August 22nd, 2021, 3:30 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Arizona Vacation
- Replies: 3
- Views: 3009
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...
- August 9th, 2021, 6:21 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: Help with ID - Yucatan, Mexico
- Replies: 15
- Views: 5973
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
4 Dendropsophus microcephalus ?
5 Leptodactylus melanonotus
6 Incilius valliceps
7 Scinax staufferi ?
Maybe some help here...
Jeff
- July 20th, 2021, 6:56 pm
- Forum: The Forum
- Topic: July 2020 to July 2021 Herping (Missouri, Louisiana, Michigan)
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2507
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...