Flip-happy in SoCal

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jonathan
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Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by jonathan »

The first 1.5 months of this year sucked for me, and then I went to northern California and did pretty well. Something must have caught onto me on the way back, because when I got back to SoCal I started flipping all sorts of things. Here's a little writeup of the stuff I saw in that time.

p.s. - this post is insanely long. I blame Fundad, who intimidated me into waiting forever to post things.


The second I got back from NorCal, I checked a spot that I'd been herping for 5 years. It's a small urban spot and it looks good, but I'd never found a snake there. I knew there were snakes there, so I kept trying. It seemed like a good flipping day, and then, boom!


San Diego Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer annectens)

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Okay, so it's just a juvi gopher, but it was my first snake in the spot!




I was feeling lucky, so I checked another area that I'd been herping since way back. I'd seen 9 species in the area, including two snake species, but really wanted to get a king here. First I got an unusual morph:


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And then that first king!


California Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula californiae)

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Here's one other city spot. The only reason this was neat because they came in the little line that I started up myself over 4 years ago out of a junk pile:


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I also went out to the lakes and bothered some of the invasives:


Southern Water Snake (Nerodia fasciata)

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Spiny Softshell (Apalone spinifera)

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After that my wife and I moved to Loma Linda for the next month. This was awesome - I'd always lived in the middle of urban LA since I moved to SoCal, and suddenly the granite and desert habitats were a few minutes away instead of a few hours. I took advantage.

First I went for the desertish areas:


Desert Glossy Snake (Arizona elegans eburnata)

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Juvi Red Racer (Coluber flagellum piceus)

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My first Rosey double

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Mojave Shovelnose Snake (Chionactis occipitalis occipitalis)

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Interrupted a scorpion vs. centipede battle that the centipede had already lost (left side of pic)

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Desert Night Lizard (Xantusia vigilis)

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California Legless Lizard (Anniella pulchra)

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Longnose Snake (Rhinocheilus lecontei)

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And then I went for the hills.


Coachwhip double - I flipped so many coachwhips this year

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unexpected habitat shot for a rose, at least to me

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Belding's Orange-throated Whiptail (Aspidoscelis hyperythra beldingi)

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San Diego Night Snake (Hypsiglena ochrorhyncha klauberi)

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San Diego Banded Geckos (Coleonyx variegatus abbotti) - integrade

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Worked my butt off to finally score this tantilla. This was the highlight of my best flipping run ever in SoCal - 10 snakes of 6 species in one hour; 20 snakes of 7 species for the day (16 herp species total). I saw some snakes in the open, but every species was flipped under a rock or board at least once.


Western Blackheaded Snake (Tantilla planiceps)

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Biggest ruber I've found - Red Diamond Rattlesnake (Crotalus ruber ruber)

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Garden Slenders in insanely dry rocky spots

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habitat shot

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On one really hot day I had an Australian friend over who had never seen a rattlesnake. We went out to a close spot and scored a double in less than five minutes.

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We found a 3rd ruber less than 10 minutes after we started, and then I managed to come the closest I've been to getting tagged by a 4th ruber about 30 minutes after that (really over-warmed snake just shot out like a madman hissing and flailing when I flipped his rock over). It's always great to be at your worst in front of an audience. At least I got to explain why my hands were in the right place.


Also saw some beautiful Granite Spinys (Sceloporus orcutti)

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I went back there on a different day and found another double.

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One day I didn't even try to flip snakes, just looking to score lizards instead. It was worthwhile - saw 9 lizard species on the afternoon:


Banded Rock Lizard (Petrosaurus mearnsi)

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Granite Night Lizard (Xantusia henshawi)

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Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard (Uma inornata)

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Western Zebratail Lizard (Callisaurus draconoides rhodostictus)

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California Chorus Frog (Pseudacris cadaverina) - water in the stream was completely gone

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After I moved I made just a single flipping trip back in the grassy urban center, and I only had an hour to herp. It had just rained for 1.5 days and hadn't even warmed up yet. It was perfect. 6 snakes in an hour - three kings and three other species.



Western Skink (Plestiodon skiltonianus skiltonianus)

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Southern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri)

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The last of the six snakes was under a huge a highway sign all by itself that I've flipped 4 times in 3 years. It's had a striped racer under it three of those four times.

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At the beginning of April I had to plan a retreat for myself, so I planned it for the southeastern corner of California. The fact that I'd never been there before and wanted a few lifers from that area was only a small factor in that plan, of course. :lol:

I started out searching for diamondbacks. I failed. Later I would run into a woman who would describe the engorged rattlesnake her dog had almost stepped on two hours earlier. Her description matched a diamondback. Boo.


After turning away from diamondbacks I focused on checkered garters. I failed at that too. The habitat was pretty cool-looking though:

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In the process of looking for garters I flipped for subterranean snakes on the water's edge, and did a little bit better:


Variable Ground Snake (Sonora semiannulata) - lifer!

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habitat shot

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I picked a camping spot because it was right on the edge of the best habitat. It was a good sign when a herp was waiting in the camping spot for me:


Purple-backed Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister magister)

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I didn't see anything else of note the first day, but on the second day there I flipped one of the logs that defined my parking space, and boom!


Desert Threadsnake (Leptotyphlops humilis cahuilae)

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habitat shot

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Some other pictures from the area

A very cold Great Basin Whiptail (Aspidoscelis tigris tigris)

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Northern Desert Iguana (Dipsosaurus dorsalis dorsalis)

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Great Basin Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus bicinctores)

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What kind of plane is this? There were two flying together.

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After I drove out of there I focused on the desert. That went poorly from the beginning. First a lot of the interesting habitat was "fee" areas that I didn't want to pay. Second, when I started searching the torn-up areas, I spotted two Fringe-toed Lizards that I failed to voucher. Third, I failed to find either of the horned lizard species I was searching for. Fourth, when I saw my first road-cruised snake of the year (a leafnose snake, I think), I took the time to turn the car around and it got away! AFAIK, I've never had a snake get away from me while road-cruising at night before!!!


Finally, I broke my bad streak in the desert and found something.

Colorado Desert Sidewinder (Crotalus cerastes laterorepens)

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That was it for the desert though. On the way home I kept searching (and failing) for checkered garters, instead only finding ugly invasive frogs

Rio Grande Leopard Frogs (Lithobates berlandieri)

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Invasives even hate each other

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I had realized that I had almost no time left to herp California, so I started just hitting areas that had stuff I hadn't seen in two years, for the memories. Some of this was invasive populations that I like to keep tabs on.

Ringed Wall Gecko (Tarentola annularis)

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Southern Sagebrush Lizard Sceloporus graciosus vandenburgianus)

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Colorado River Tree Lizard (Urosaurus ornatus symmetricus)

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My wife was going to visit her sister in San Diego, so I planned to end the year by making a run to the border to try for some lifers. Unfortunately, the exact same thing happened as the previous time I tried that plan a month earlier...a cold, cold storm blew in. Rather than waste time at the border again, I had my wife drop me off in the southern Santa Anas and backpacked in to the middle of nowhere.

We stopped a few places for short hikes on the way there. We sort of started off on the wrong foot. I was walking on one side of a dirt road, looking for horned lizards on the berm, and Rose was walking on the other side, when she said, "Jon, snake, it's gone." She then proceeded to describe a Coast Patchnose to me. Lifer. Great.

After that, though, everything went well. One that 1 mile hike alone we hiked three snakes!

Southwestern Speckled Rattlesnake (Crotalus mitchellii pyrrhus)

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San Diego Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer annectens)

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Blainville's Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma blainvillii)

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Two-striped Garter Snake (Thamnophis hammondii)

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habitat shot

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Then my wife dropped me off and I hiked into the mountains. I heard calls my first night, and had to investigate:

California Chorus Frog (Pseudacris cadaverina)

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Baja California Chorus Frog (Pseudacris hypochondriaca)

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Coast Range Newt (Taricha torosa torosa)

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Southern California Toad (Anaxyrus boreas halophilus)

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The next morning I tried to get some county records by backpacking deep into the canyon system and across the county border. I saw some beautiful scenery and a skunk (the first I've seen in broad daylight), but no herps of note. Then, when I'd gone 10 miles round-trip and was nearly back to where I started, I finally got something nice!


Arboreal Salamander (Aneides lugubris)

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Here's a habitat shot from far above - the little treed area in the distant bottoms is where I found it:

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Flipped a few other things too:

Blackbelly Slender Salamander (Batrachoseps nigriventris) - near edge of range

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Not quite a Jerusalem Cricket?

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The biggest ants I've seen in SoCal - the little ones are normal-size

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After I got back, it stayed cold and rainy. I went out road-cruising the rain a couple times, and all I could find were these:

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And that's a wrap. If I get lucky I might find a couple last things today, but otherwise I might be done for a while. There's always 2015 though!
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JAMAUGHN
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by JAMAUGHN »

Worth the wait, Jonathan. Excellent post. Good luck in India!

JimM
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LouB747
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by LouB747 »

Great post! The helicopter is a Bell (Boeing) Osprey. The rotors tilt for forward flight. Nice find!
hellihooks
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by hellihooks »

Love the variable groundsnake. hope to find one myself, this weekend. look forward to all the cool stuff from India, bro... careful with the spitters. 8-) :D jim
Oh yeah... GREAT job on the Aboreal!
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monklet
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by monklet »

Mind-blower Jonathan!!! :crazyeyes: ...man you must have been a busy guy, all over the place! Sure wish I could find a nice rock to flip around here. Still never found a live snake under a rock ...haven't done a lot of flipping but probably at least 500 rocks from SE AZ to the Greenhorns.
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rosy-man
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by rosy-man »

great stuff alot to like but i love the ground snake best
RobertH
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by RobertH »

Fantastic, Jonathan, especially the Variable Groundsnake and Thread Snake. Good luck in India and post some pics of stuff you find over there once in a while, will you?

Robert
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sjfriend
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by sjfriend »

Congratulations on a great post. I miss flipping in CA. When I can get back, the weather is wrong or the spots I knew have been destroyed. Love the diversity of your finds.

Steve
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Speckled Rosy
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by Speckled Rosy »

Nice finds, you were definatly on it, for a couple weeks there! Great post!

-Dan
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David Jahn
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by David Jahn »

Wow, that's some hard core herping you've been doing. It's great to see all that effort paying off so nicely! Great job with the Ground Snake. It's much cooler than a WDB or Checkered Garter anyway!
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El Garia
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by El Garia »

Excellent job, Jonathan! I've watched you herp, so I know that a lot of hard work went in to finding all those critters. :thumb: Godspeed to You and Rose. I hope to herp with you again... in a few years time :D

Aloha Nui Loa,

El Garia
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socalherper
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by socalherper »

Great post ! Thanks for sharing!
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scutrox
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by scutrox »

Awesome post, totally diggin the sonora. They're such cool snakes.
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jonathan
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by jonathan »

Thank you much for the props everyone! And yes, I think I liked the ground snake most too.

I will certainly post from India, though it might be a long time before I get the chance. If my time in Thailand was any indication, it might be very very slow herping for months too before I figure out what I'm doing and where to go.

Lou - two Ospreys! That explains why they were confusing me. They appeared to be flying in military-style formation too, but I couldn't imagine what kind of military plane would have props like that - it makes sense now.

Steve - yeah, I did see a few spots that got messed-up while I was gone. One was a small trash line I had created that disappeared, the other two were rock areas where everything had been poorly replaced. But for the most part my old spots produced as good or better than they ever had, and I found some cool new ones.

El Garia - I hope we herp again too. You haven't seen me really herp though - I always take it easy when I'm herping with others and let them do lots of the work. :lol:
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Porter
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by Porter »

I honesty don't know where to begin... :lol:

As I was scolling down through the pics, I was thinking, "Is there anything NOT in this post?" :lol: Even a Leopard frog... I think thats the first Leapord I've seen posted. A striped varible (the only ground snake variation I ever need to find lol) and a thread?! :shock: Great variety :thumb: The shot of the two bullfrog about to ram into each other is awesome! I also enjoyed that stream of Toad variation at the end. However, my favorite pic here... the two Ruber, ying-yang, coiled shot... that's something to go on the wall. Great post :thumb:
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jonathan
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by jonathan »

Thank you Porter! I can tell you the things not in that post...4 species I saw and failed to voucher (plus I didn't both posting 4-5 common species), about 15 species I looked for and failed to find, and another 35+ species I ran out of time to look for. I'm not making up those numbers. SoCal is an incredibly diverse area for herps!

I liked coming across those ruber too. If you could have been there for the situation it was even cooler than it looks. I have a better picture of the two ruber that's really funny in context, but I left it out at the end because it's a locale giveaway.
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Jeroen Speybroeck
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Re: Flip-happy in SoCal

Post by Jeroen Speybroeck »

Fantastic!
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