Field Herp Forum

Am I missing the why part..ie why remove them? Probably the most responsible thing to do would be just let nature take its course if the den is altered or removed. (Relocation would almost certainly mean an equally unjustified death anyways). The risk reward of introducing non-native specimens into ...

Headlamp
flashlight
pocket knife
gps
boots
waders
tent
dip net
The selection of books is unlimited

I would call those blairi.

Seems like it would be an excellent find in Indiana because they get scarce in Eastern Illinois.

Nice queen snake! Was this in the lower DesPlaines River basin?

Ok thanx guys

Thanx a lot. I will check them out for sure.

I have a few landscapes and a couple herp shots I want to frame and hang. Does anyone have recommendations for online sources to get prints, and any other hints would be helpful too, particularly paper type. I've only ever printed people portraits from Walgreens etc, I definitely want to go up a not...

Crap, sorry I was late. Maybe use my below advice for next time you're in town. Oh, crap...It's hot as hell. Probably one of the worst times. I'm not too familiar with SE Wisconsin, but early morning on decent prairie habitat you can still see smooth greens, garters, and fox snakes in this kind of w...

Neat, have you seen a badger? I have not, but would love to get a glimpse of one someday.

Thanks. No Lined Snakes in Illinois, they are pretty rare here. I would like to see the type of habitat they occur in downstate. They are (to me) one of the most interesting snakes in Illinois. They are surely more widespread than the existing records would indicate, but yeah...rare for sure. Again...

OH, I just saw that if I click the image I get what I was looking for. Cool stuff, man. Have you seen Tropidoclonion in Illinois?

WOW! Lots of cool stuff in there.

Would you divulge the counties on your pickerel frog and lined snake? If not, no sweat - or you could PM me.

Great post.

Matt

I've been trying to give it a chance, but I find myself visiting fewer and fewer times. I can't tell if someone comments on one of my photos, or responds to a comment I added previously. Takes a long time to load too for some reason. I really went in with an open mind and it's starting to close. Wil...

Cool!

I needed a new book, so thanx for that too.

cOOL. That qualifies as quite a few to me. Last one I saw (in N. Illinois) was crossing Rt. 31 one mile north of Rt. 64 St. Charles. Going toward the big "old quarry" west of 31.

You can save a lot of money picking up a used body - the money saved can help pay for lenses where you get a way better return on investment (=image quality) compared to camera body.

Nice one, Bill. I think they are totally cool, mostly because I so rarely get to see one.

TurtleTim. I haven't seen a stinkpot up here in ~ 12 years or so. It's easier to see spotteds or blandings in Chicagoland than stinkpots lol. Would love to see another, any secret for how to search for them?

Looks like the white balance needs some tweaking to me.

Wow, nice one.

Around my home (~ 35 miles west of Chicago) any pond remotely resembling wildlife habitat can and usually will have them. Also strip mines, gravel pits, retention ponds, floodplains. Also they can be very common in hardwood forest up here and often occur in smallish numbers with Ambystoma maculatum ...

That is sweet!! I don't think I've ever seen branchiate adult Notophthalmus viridescens posted. There isn't much out there that I can find as far as literature. I have an old paper from 1966 documenting them from Southern Illinois. In the paper they mention vouchers from states throughout their rang...

The three head shot is fantastic!

Looks exactly like the big den near my home, probably the same structure. BTW they have dispersed here as I have seen huge adult DOR and seen juveniles quite a ways from the den.

What's wrong with the DOF on #3?

Thanx. Cool salamanders, are A. barbouri nearby?

Is the last barbouri or texanum?

Awesome, thanx for posting.

Matt

I apologize to Brandon for being crude with my original comment. I was trying to make a point regarding priorities and future considerations - not be hurtful. Understand, though that it is not at all a stretch to take the premise of this thread as "I am leaving my family so I can go herping more". -...

Is it?

-But it is acceptable to recommend to a stranger to leave his loved ones (including children) to find more snakes?

I really hope you will be proud of all of your past herp accomplishments as another man is giving your daughters away at their weddings.

Regarding Gimp. There are countless online tutorials and walkthroughs - these are invaluable IMO as half the battle is getting over the intimidation factor of such a powerful software. The help function itself is pretty awesome. Also there are flickr groups dedicated to Gimp with helpful discussions...

I love the habitat shots. There's nothing better than seeing salamander habitat this time of year.

Great finds, but very impressive photographs too. I can see why many old school wildlife photographers ate up that Velvia.

Neato! I can actually spy on tiger salamanders year-round. They come out whenever it is a tad warm (above freezing) and precipitation. They hang out in the bottom of just one drainage sewer in the parking lot of my son's elementary school. Probably could have had some unique personal records for Dec...

You can always try Flickr.


http://www.flickr.com/groups/[email protected]/pool/

I call the Illinois Nerodia erythrogaster "poorly understood" There is a common belief that @ snake road you have N. erythrogaster flavigaster and as near as fifteen miles east you get N. e. neglecta. I have seen this species as far as fifty miles east of snake road and they looked about the same as...

Frickin' amazing, man. I will surely try this.

Wow, that's good news, Andy. It is very rare to hear anything at all positive about mussels. The Mississippi River for sure is infested with "zeebs" and they are further decimating at least a few federal species. The damn barges travel upstream. Lake Michigan is infested obviously, but so trashed to...

WOW, nice work. Great inverts.

Awesome. It can be hard enough finding pups, let alone those. I don't think a salamander mussel has been found alive in Illinois for decades...and, as I know you know...Those are downright common compared to many others. Also herp related: I was told that Graptemys populations are suffering - even b...

Holy crap, that stuff is amazing. I recently bought a canon powershot d20 which is submersible - for photoing freshwater mussels. It is not a DSLR obviously, but is capable of above average quality underwater shots, supposedly good video too. Sure is awkward to try to manipulate a point and shoot wh...

This is the reality of the place. Some of the negatives that go along with the positives of having a spot so herpetologically diverse, accessible, and famous. Thankfully there is an entire national forest with an abundance of good herping spots which require effort to find an/or get to. This keeps o...

Thanx. Must be nice to have crystal clear water. Those shots are all awesome.

Well, that's a newt.

Is that your dipnet though? That cracked me up. Pretty resourceful.

Yeah, I have the Tokina 100mm which I've used for years on a D-70, now for years on my D-200. The thing is fine, I've never had an issue with quality and have even had many pics published. The lens is also tough as nails, I've had it wet muddy dropped many times sandy etc and it holds up. That said,...

Hmm. Is there anything in particular that makes you think it's not P. cinereus?

Range

I have always thought that it would benefit herp-forums and detract from the negative outlook on field herpers if there was a small amount of "censorship" on forums regarding locales. Iow anything at all revealing (even county in many instances) should be removed by moderators.

Someone else on here may help.

If all else fails, you will have to pose as a naive girl and ask the same qs on the main forum.

How did you find the mud turtle?

Yeah I had a d70s for many years. This is a killer body, even by todays standards.