Lighting up Lackawanna

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brick911
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Location: Morrisville, PA

Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by brick911 »

This was my weekend with the kids and I knew I wanted to get them outdoors. I made plans to hit Great Adventure with them Friday night after work (no lines believe it or not) and then Hurricane Harbor all day Saturday. That said, I figured they'd owe me a day in the field. They like it, but I have a tendency to go overboard. :D

We decided to hit all new areas. We set out on an expedition to the blank county of Lackawanna in the database. I didn't target anything in particular. I quickly just picked a few roads from google and decided to see what I found along the way. Our total tally for the day was 10 different species. I usually measure my success on quantity of snakes (when I'm not targeting anything individually). Thus, we found five different species for a total of 18 animals. Not bad for us.

Here's a bunch of pics of where we herped (or just nice scenery), what we found, and just the kids having fun.

Getting there...

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We found ringnecks in two different locales.

Northern Ring-necked Snake... Diadophis punctatus edwardsi

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This first one had belly dots all the way down it. I give up on trying to make any sense of physical traits between Northerns and Southerns.

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At this glade we found three (without dots).

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Wesley found this pickerel sitting in a wooded area.

Pickerel Frog... Lithobates palustris

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And this is what happens when the frog jumps away...

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Stopped here...

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And heard this hopping, figuring it was probably just a green frog.

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But nope.

Wood Frog... Lithobates sylvaticus

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Hmmm... Lets head to the other side.

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Northern Green Frog... Lithobates clamitans melanota

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Northern Dusky Salamander... Desmognathus fuscus

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I'm not sure what owned this...

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This guy was cool...

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Northern Water Snake... Nerodia sipedon sipedon

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This spot will definitely be seeing me again.

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We found a half dozen redbellies.

Northern Red-bellied Snake... Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata

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I love the marbled look of redbellies up close.

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Eastern American Toad... Anaryxus americanus americanus

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The most exciting part of the trip was finding these smoothies. These snakes are stunning. I flipped one, and found three others in the open, but one got away.

Smooth Green Snake... Opheodrys vernalis

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The flipped one was in blue.

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On the way back to the car from the last spot for the day, I was saying to Wes that I couldn't believe two garters got away without a voucher today. A common snake that would have been an easy county record for the database. Then literally ten feet from the car, I heard something in the grass and was able to snap a crappy voucher.

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So that was my day. The kids surprised me and got along most of the day. Close to the turnpike, I drove across this dam. I didn't herp here, but thought it was a nice parting shot.

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Later,
Bob
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Matt J
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Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by Matt J »

Smooth greens and redbelly snakes... i'm jealous. Some of those habitats look realllly nice for other species.

I think that one un-ID'd picture might be of a stonefly exuviae, but I'll leave that to the experts.
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MattSullivan
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Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by MattSullivan »

the greenies are awesome Bob!!! great finds. thats another one i've never seen. i need to steop it up
spllogics
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Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by spllogics »

Nice post Bob. looks like a fun day.
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Excellent habitat shots, and the kids are just priceless!
Damian
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Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by Damian »

Great pics !
You're kids look like they love herping. Nice job.
joconnor
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Location: NJ

Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by joconnor »

The Red-belly close ups are excellent ! Nice work.Its great the children are into it .That power cut looks awesome ... Worth A do-over :mrgreen:
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brick911
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Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by brick911 »

Matt... Some of those areas look great, I agree. Gotta get there when it isn't pushing 90, midday.

Matt S... Greens are phenomenal looking snakes. I now have three locales for them (one is Kyle's. The other I probably couldn't re-find as I drove almost five hours in the middle of the night, slept in the woods and woke up the next morning.) So its nice to have one that hopefully can be dependable.

Jason... It was great. Someday we'll get out your way. Wes (my oldest) is seriously constantly bugging me about finding green sals. When he is old enough to have an email, I'm giving him yours. Haha... Prepare yourself.

Hans... You da man. Your kids do it up too.

Damian... Thanks, they do. Hopefully it will stay with them.

Joe... I gained a new appreciation for redbelly faces with my macro lens this weekend. I going to work on improving those types of shots, and hopefully it will show over the next couple seasons. The power line cut is definitely a do-over.
Notread
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Joined: June 10th, 2010, 7:29 am

Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by Notread »

You took my county. I had already claimed it! :P

Nice work!!!
davhug1
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Joined: November 30th, 2012, 1:12 pm
Location: lackawanna county

Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by davhug1 »

Good area for timbers and
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brick911
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Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by brick911 »

Wow Dave, you dug up a 3.5 year old thread! At least I've gotten better with pictures.
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ZantiMissKnit
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Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by ZantiMissKnit »

HAHAHAHA, your kids look so young!
davhug1
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Joined: November 30th, 2012, 1:12 pm
Location: lackawanna county

Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by davhug1 »

Lots of time to look at stuff from the experts, i just saw lackawana county, so i figured i 'd check it out. I ride my bike there quite a bit, nice area.
davhug1
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Joined: November 30th, 2012, 1:12 pm
Location: lackawanna county

Re: Lighting up Lackawanna

Post by davhug1 »

brick911 wrote:Wow Dave, you dug up a 3.5 year old thread! At least I've gotten better with pictures.
Your one of the masters in my book.
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