Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
SnakeStick
Posts: 355
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 5:35 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island, South Cackalacky

Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by SnakeStick »

What's up everyone,
I'm going to start by apologizing for how poorly this post is put together. I had all the images sized evenly and captioned until my Ipad died :evil:. I'm honestly just too ticked to go back and redo it. This post is a combination of previous posts from the SE chapter as well as other pics that haven't been posted here. This post is in chronological order (for the most part). Just a warning, this might be really redundant to all you SE chapter members and FB friends.

2012 has been a good year as far as herping goes. Making this post brought back a lot of fond memories. I got to meet a lot of other herpers and managed to get a few lifers too. My 2012 herping season started off with a garter snake found on 1/1/12. I hope I can do the same on 1/1/13. Okay, let’s get to the pics. There's a ton of them....


This T. s. sirtalis was found basking in the sun. Temps were in the mid-fifties.

Image

After heavy rains S. holbrookii are a rather common sight around the yard. It hadn't rained recently, but this guy was hopping around.

Image

T. s. sackenii soaking up some sun on a fetter bush.

Image

I went to Atlanta to visit some family. I met up with fellow forum member, Jake S., to get out and find some salamanders. Goal accomplished.

Eurycea cirrigera

Image

D. conanti

Image

Eurycea guttolineata

Image

Plethodon cylindraceus

Image

Pseudotriton ruber

Image

H. platyrhinos shed
Image

Image

Image

I observed a group of Southern Leopard Frogs calling on a warm night in January. Here’s one of the participants,

Image


I made a goal this year to see all the Pseudacris species occurring in the coastal plain of SC. Around mid-February, I got my shot as heavy rains lingered in the area for a few days. As I arrived at my destination, promising sounds were emanating from a nearby ditch. Some patient stalking proved rewarding…

Brimley’s Chorus Frog

Image

Image

Southern Chorus Frogs were out calling in good numbers, here’s a pair in amplexus,

Image

Spring Peeper

Image

Ornate Chorus Frogs proved difficult to locate. Here’s a male calling from the center of a grass tuft,

Image

Image

Coastal Plain Cricket Frog

Image

The chirp-like calls of this Little Grass Frog led me uncomfortably close to a mother gator and young. Thankfully any decent flashlight will make a gator’s eyes light up like stars.

Image

Green Treefrog,

Image

Eastern Garter Snake

Image

Peninsula Ribbon Snake

Image

Banded Water snake

Image

Cottonmouth

Image

Image

Image

Image

Five-Lined Skink,

Image

Eastern Glass Lizard,

Image

Image

The high ground surrounding the tidal creek behind my house contains some good sized hummocks and a vast amount of discarded wood/stumps. The wood has decomposed slowly (petrified?) over time and become great habitat for kingsnakes,
King 1

Image

Image

King 2

Image

Me with a juvenile, you can get an idea of the habitat from the background.

Image

Eastern Diamondback,

Image

Image

Image

Image

I met up with friends to do some flipping around S.C. Although conditions weren't optimal for flipping, we did manage to turn up some cool stuff. Thankfully, we got some rain Saturday morning which helped push the snakes back under cover. Here are some highlights of the three day outing:

Me with a black rat snake,

Image

Red-bellied watersnake,

Image

My first canebrake of the year,

Image

This rat snake was basking on top of a junk pile,

Image

Marbled Sally,

Image

A large, gravid female kingsnake found in the ribs of a car hood.

Image

Canebrake, as flipped,

Image

Kingsnake, as flipped,

Image

Canebrake,

Image

Copperheads were the most common snake flipped, followed by rat snakes and racers, respectively. This one was a beast,

Image

Rat snake sitting on its dinner plate (copperhead in background),

Image

A small corn snake,

Image

Six-lined racerunner,

Image

The work of a scrapper,

Image

Cottonmouth,

Image

Coachwhip,

Image

Corn snake found AOR on the way home,

Image

A "zig-zag" copperhead from Francis Marion NF.

Image

Nice kingsnake from FMNF.

Image

Here’s some shots from a short trip to IL.

Cricket frogs were the most common herp and could be heard calling 24/7,

Image

Bullfrogs also made an appearance,

Image

Midland water snakes were a common sight around the pond,

Image

Image

We flipped this ringneck under a piece of tin,

Image

Fowlers toads could be found hopping around the property. This was a lifer for me and probably my favorite find of the trip,

Image

This big rat snake was found hanging out around the wood pile,

Image

On the way back we made a brief stop at a state park in Tennessee. Here's a habitat shot (Cedar Glades),

Image

Image

A short walk turned up fence lizards, racerunners, and box turtles. Here's one of the boxies,

Image

Back to SC…

DBT's can be seen moving around in the tidal creeks near my house. Here's a super-cropped photo,

Image

I finally got my hands on a Pseudemys sp.,

Image

Image

This slider was excavating a nest in my yard,

Image

Corn Snake,

Image

Eastern hognose,

Image

Image

Rough Green

Image

Scarlet snake,

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

King,

Image

Corn Snake,

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Passionflower,

Image

DBT,

Image

Tropical Depression Beryl brought much-needed rains to the coast of SC, and as a result anuran activity was extremely high. H. cinerea, H. chrysoscelis, H. squirella, H. femoralis, H. gratiosa, H. avivoca, L. clamitans, L. sphenocephala, L. catesbeiana, B. terrestris, P. nigrita, P. ocularis, A. gryllus, and G. carolinensis were heard calling that week. Here's a Cope's gray that was calling from the middle of the road. Unfortunately he stopped before I was able to get my camera,

Image

And a Bronze Frog,

Image

I've seen a few female DBTs wandering around with intentions of nesting,

Image

Image

The street I live on yielded these two gems on consecutive nights,

Image

Image

This canebrake was found a few hours before the first rains of Beryl,

Image

The next one was a lifer for me. This adult mud snake was found on the last pass of the night. This specimen had very little red pigment.

Image

Image

Eastern Hognose

Image


Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

The next few shots are from Ocala NF, FL...

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

That's the end of the FL pictures.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

The next few shots are from the "Places You've Never Herped" outing hosted by The Orianne Society. The event, which took place in GA, was a friendly herping competition constricted to a few different WMA's. Participants were provided data sheets to record their findings throughout the day. Data sheets were used to declare the winners and to give data to NAFHA. The outing was a great success. It was nice getting to meet some fellow forum goers.
Here are some of the finds, the boxie was the only find I can call my own,


Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

That's it from that field trip...

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image



Thanks for looking!
User avatar
dery
Posts: 1779
Joined: October 1st, 2011, 12:01 pm
Location: huntsville

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by dery »

What a year!! :thumb:
Herpetologist115
Posts: 162
Joined: May 21st, 2012, 3:23 pm
Location: Utah County, Utah

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Herpetologist115 »

Nice herps!!!! Looks like it been a good year for you! :thumb:
Celinder72
Posts: 13
Joined: April 12th, 2011, 11:10 pm

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Celinder72 »

Great post ! It brought back memories of herping Francis Marion and all points between with Greg Theos in the 90s. The Corn snakes are gorgeous . I never get tired of seeing the "Okeetees" . The Pine Snake pic is very disturbing ,what is the story behind it?
User avatar
Mark Brown
Posts: 567
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 2:15 am
Location: Austin, TX

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Mark Brown »

Wow, that was one helluva post/year! You find some stunning Corns over there and that aberrant Scarlet King and "zipzag" Southern Copperhead would just about make my life. You don't have better shots of either, do you? I love oddball Copperheads and that one is really interesting.
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by BillMcGighan »

Super, Ian

Habitat shots are killers, as winter approaches.
Small snake track in sand is intriguing.
User avatar
monklet
Posts: 2648
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 4:44 pm
Location: Ventura, CA
Contact:

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by monklet »

Not a whole lot to apologize for there :shock: Epic post/year! Tons of great shots.

Were those two dead pines found together? Were they DOR?
User avatar
MattSullivan
Posts: 419
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 2:07 pm
Location: New Jersey

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by MattSullivan »

love all the hognoses! my favorite snakes but i've never seen one
User avatar
SnakeStick
Posts: 355
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 5:35 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island, South Cackalacky

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by SnakeStick »

Thanks everyone,


Celinder, this area does produce some nice corn snakes. I'm partial to the ones with thick saddle borders.
The road-jerky pines succumbed to careless rednecks.


Mark, I dont have any other shots of that copperhead. Here's a cropped version,

Image

Here's another shot of the scarlet snake,

Image


Bill, I regret not taking more habitat shots this year. I always enjoy seeing people's habitat shots, especially tin/AC sites.
Unfortunately, I didn't see the snake that made that track. I'm guessing it was a hognose.


Monklet, The DOR hatchling pines were found in the same area. One was found in the evening and one in the following morning. I didn't manage to see a live one this year.


Matt, I never get tired of finding them. I hope to see H. nasicus someday.
User avatar
Nigel Smith
Posts: 268
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 10:52 am
Location: Lexington Kentucky

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Nigel Smith »

Wow looks like you had a great year. Congrats on all of your finds. :thumb: I especially liked that aberrant scarlet snake and all of those hognose shots. That scarlett snake was insane! Sorry about those pinesnakes. Always sucks to see them dor. At least you know your in a good area.
User avatar
Mark Brown
Posts: 567
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 2:15 am
Location: Austin, TX

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Mark Brown »

Ah, so it is a Cemophora......I couldn't tell for sure from the first photo and guessed wrong. Thanks for the bigger Copperhead photo - what a cool snake!
User avatar
Andrew G
Posts: 278
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 1:53 pm
Location: South-Central Kansas

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Andrew G »

My favorite snakes are pit vipers, hognose and kingsnakes. You certainly posted some nice examples of all of those, but that scarlet snake, WOW that takes the cake! I would be freaking out if I came across something with such a cool aberrant pattern. Great job and thanks for sharing!

Andrew
User avatar
AndyO'Connor
Posts: 1019
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:14 pm
Location: Pacific Northwest

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by AndyO'Connor »

As mentioned, the scarlet is pretty wild. A few other pics that stood out were the baby cotton sitting on top of the adult, some of the timbers, the zigzag copper, the DBTs, I could keep going, some excellent finds.
User avatar
walk-about
Posts: 567
Joined: June 14th, 2010, 12:04 pm
Location: 'God's Country' aka western KY
Contact:

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by walk-about »

Totally rocked this post! What a fantastic year. That Cemophora is crazy. Loved the last hognose. The magnificant cypress tree unreal. How big was that spiney softshell? Crossing road? Very impressive sir.

RoCK ON!

Dave
Reptiluvr
Posts: 258
Joined: April 23rd, 2011, 7:49 pm

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Reptiluvr »

You had an epic year! You really did well on hognose snakes. I know everyone else is jealous. You got a lot of herps while eating too which is cool. Both the hognose and a snake eating in the field were firsts for me this year.
One of the things that sticks out about this post is your friend seriously looks like Matt Damon. It's freaky.
User avatar
Gary2sons
Posts: 297
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 4:44 pm
Location: Camden County, Missouri

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Gary2sons »

Wow! That's a lot of herping! :thumb:

Congrats on a great year!

So much to comment on but the king in the car hood and the coachwhip with the head raised that high were nice. Also some awesome hognose and I especially liked the pics of the aberrant snakes !

Gary
mikemike
Posts: 1207
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 1:37 pm
Location: Ft. Smith, Arkansas
Contact:

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by mikemike »

That Scarlet is just ridiculous.
User avatar
SnakeStick
Posts: 355
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 5:35 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island, South Cackalacky

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by SnakeStick »

Thanks again to everyone who commented. I'm glad you all enjoyed.

Nigel, that scarlet was pretty crazy. I doubt I'll ever find another one like that. I'm still kicking myself for not holding on to it for some daytime shots.


Andrew, freaking out is probably an understatement of my initial reaction to that scarlet snake. I didn't know what to think when I first saw it.

Dave, that softshell was a monster. She was crossing the road in an area where I would least expect to see one. To my knowledge, there wasn't any water for miles.

Reptiluvr, I think he looks more like Kevin Bacon in Tremors. Haha. I didn't come across as many herps eating as I did last year.

Gary, that coachwhip shot is one of my favorites from this year.
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Tim Borski »

HOLY COW Ian, You had quite the year!

At first I liked the Coastal plains cricket because of the lighting, then I really liked the EDB at the base of the Palmetto, then I thought the AOR Corn was a real looker, then the Hog with the orange head, then....Jeezus, it just kept going and going and getting better! :lol:

And then...then, there were all the yummy hab shots! :thumb:

Excellent, excellent job and congrats on a great season! Thanks.

Tim
davhug1
Posts: 125
Joined: November 30th, 2012, 1:12 pm
Location: lackawanna county

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by davhug1 »

great stuff
User avatar
umop apisdn
Posts: 395
Joined: June 13th, 2010, 6:06 pm

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by umop apisdn »

Congrats on getting your eastern king featured on the HN site. You had tons of great shots this year.
SnakeStick wrote:Gary, that coachwhip shot is one of my favorites from this year.
;)
User avatar
SnakeStick
Posts: 355
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 5:35 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island, South Cackalacky

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by SnakeStick »

Thanks a lot, Tim. I knew you would like the habitat shots.

Mike, haha, I didn't even know it was on there. Thanks for the heads up.



Well, since the year isn't over, I think it would be acceptable to add a few more photos...

This sub-adult Indigo was seen slowly moving away from it's tortoise burrow,

Image

Image

Image
btskanks
Posts: 47
Joined: June 20th, 2010, 8:37 am

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by btskanks »

WoW- Great season, ? could that cottonmouth neonate be a hypo its just so light?
User avatar
SnakeStick
Posts: 355
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 5:35 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island, South Cackalacky

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by SnakeStick »

Thanks, btskanks. I would consider that to be typical coloration for a cottonmouth that size. I've definitely seen lighter specimens.
Coluber Constrictor
Posts: 1165
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:25 am
Location: Mobile, AL

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Coluber Constrictor »

.
User avatar
Nshepard
Posts: 377
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 12:08 pm

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by Nshepard »

Great stuff, great area, great year! I'm drooling over some of that habitat...
User avatar
SnakeStick
Posts: 355
Joined: August 18th, 2010, 5:35 pm
Location: Hilton Head Island, South Cackalacky

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by SnakeStick »

James, I did see quite a few hognose this year. Putting in countless hours of searching for them inevitably paid off. Although on rare occasion they would find me. My first platyrhinos of 2012 was found in the garage of my new house. :lol: Did you attend that last meeting at Conecuh?

Thanks, Nshepard.
cherper
Posts: 173
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 10:14 am
Location: CSRA Georgia

Re: Lowcountry Herping 2012 (mostly SC and GA)(DUW)

Post by cherper »

Ian,

Great year!!!!! I'm glad we were about to spend a couple hours herping together again this year. You have found just about everything I would've loved to find this year and some! I was wondering how you managed to get by without posting that late year Indigo. That would have been my favorite of the year. I look forward to getting out with you maybe this Spring sometime.

Cary
Post Reply