Some 'phibs!

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Natalie McNear
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Some 'phibs!

Post by Natalie McNear »

Here are a couple Ensatina eschscholztii picta I found in my front yard in Arcata. Not often seen here on the forums.

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And an Aneides flavipunctatus flavipunctatus found with Mike Spencer when he was in California recently.

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In situ shot of some Rana cascadae in Tehama County - the frogs in this area are morphologically and genetically distinct from those in either the Trinity Alps or southern Oregon. These frogs were found during a mark/recapture study on chytridiomycosis in metamorphs being carried out by HSU, I was able to assist in catching and swabbing over 150 metamorphs from a single wet meadow. Unfortunately, infection and mortality rates are quite high in this population.

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Crappy shot, but here is a baby Dicamptodon tenebrosus road cruised in a neighborhood on the way to a herpetology meeting at HSU.

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Lastly if we have any physics/meteorology nerds on here, here's a "WTF rainbow" I saw yesterday when I was in Eureka. As you all know, double rainbows are (or should be) two concentric circles. This one didn't get the message - how does this happen???

Image


Merry Christmas everyone. :beer:

EDIT: YouTube material removed following clarification.
Tamara D. McConnell
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Re: Jared68nova, Mr. Internet Tough Guy (+ some 'phibs!)

Post by Tamara D. McConnell »

Wow, Natalie, your ensatina shots are other-worldly beautiful.
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Mr.Talltree
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Re: Jared68nova, Mr. Internet Tough Guy (+ some 'phibs!)

Post by Mr.Talltree »

That Ensatina is sick!!! As for the weird double-rainbow, they only occur like that when a unicorn sharts on an albino leprechaun. Very rare.
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dery
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Re: Jared68nova, Mr. Internet Tough Guy (+ some 'phibs!)

Post by dery »

The cascades frogs are pretty cool too.
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Re: Jared68nova, Mr. Internet Tough Guy (+ some 'phibs!)

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Tamara D. McConnell wrote:Wow, Natalie, your ensatina shots are other-worldly beautiful.
Yes, they are!
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Natalie McNear
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Natalie McNear »

Thanks guys.

Luke... I laughed and choked on my beer when I read your explanation. :lol:
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Mr.Talltree
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Mr.Talltree »

Natalie McNear wrote:Thanks guys.

Luke... I laughed and choked on my beer when I read your explanation. :lol:
:beer:
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Calfirecap »

Very cool Ensatina Natalie and congrats on making it up to HSU. I don't recall ever seeing one like that when I lived in Humboldt Co., but back then I never went out herping. I do remember a field up there where you could see a gardersnake about every 30 seconds. I'll pm you with the location once I can figure out what the street names are. Of course it could all be built over by now.

Lawrence
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Soopaman
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Soopaman »

Natalie McNear wrote:

Lastly if we have any physics/meteorology nerds on here, here's a "WTF rainbow" I saw yesterday when I was in Eureka. As you all know, double rainbows are (or should be) two concentric circles. This one didn't get the message - how does this happen???

Image


Merry Christmas everyone. :beer:

EDIT: YouTube material removed following clarification.

Not a physics or meteorology nerd... I disdain physics, really. But I can comment on possible causes of the effect.

Rainbows occur as a reflection of sunlight on high concentrations of moisture in the atmosphere, which is why you typically see them after rain, and with a raincloud in the not too distance background. The main rainbow (the brighter one showing typical arch) is the result of such an effect. If you look at the angle of the ring (rainbows are actually circles, but because the ends of the circle hit the ground, you never see the whole thing) you can tell it is the result of the sunlight. The other rainbow is at an odd angle and arch seems to indicate a light source from the ground. Additionally, the more subdued colors indicate it is not as strong of a light source as the one causing the other rainbow. I would hypothesize, then, that the light source is a reflection of the sun off of a body of water such as a lake or large pond.

Edit: Also, Merry Christmas, Nat! Great snot lizards, as always. I really like the Aneides photograph. The salamander just melts away into the background, very cool!
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by hellihooks »

Soopaman wrote: Image

Not a physics or meteorology nerd... I disdain physics, really. But I can comment on possible causes of the effect.

Rainbows occur as a reflection of sunlight on high concentrations of moisture in the atmosphere, which is why you typically see them after rain, and with a raincloud in the not too distance background. The main rainbow (the brighter one showing typical arch) is the result of such an effect. If you look at the angle of the ring (rainbows are actually circles, but because the ends of the circle hit the ground, you never see the whole thing) you can tell it is the result of the sunlight. The other rainbow is at an odd angle and arch seems to indicate a light source from the ground. Additionally, the more subdued colors indicate it is not as strong of a light source as the one causing the other rainbow. I would hypothesize, then, that the light source is a reflection of the sun off of a body of water such as a lake or large pond.
Oh...OK. i thought the rainbow on top had a boner... :crazyeyes: :lol: :lol: :lol: jim
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Natalie McNear
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Natalie McNear »

Thanks again guys.

Lawrence - I wouldn't complain, lol. :D I've actually only seen one snake since I've been out there, an infernalis I caught in the middle of a redwood forest. I went looking a few times a few months ago, but late summer can be a difficult time to find garters. I wonder if they are out this time of year on mild days... The temperature never really touches the freezing mark on the coast, but the sun is also lower in the sky compared to the Bay Area and doesn't warm the ground as much. That combined with the fact that the more abundant rain makes it hard for the ground to get warmed up anyway makes me wonder if they just brumate during the wettest part of the year rather than remaining active year-round.

Kyle - That does make sense, I didn't think of that. There is a mudflat nearby that can probably be pretty reflective at the right time of day, and that would explain the odd angle of the rainbow. Interesting that this is the first time I've seen this phenomenon despite living sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay my whole life.
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Fundad »

Beautiful manders Natalie..

:thumb:

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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by JAMAUGHN »

Excellent shots, all. Thanks for sharing these.

JimM
Zach_Lim
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Zach_Lim »

Gorgeous Ensatina, Natalie.

Love the first closeup show of the little guy's face- adorable. I want to hug it.

Good luck up North.
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by yolodave »

Happy to see you tromping through the ancestral lands of Ensatina in northwest California. Lots of variation in those critters up there. Mucho good stuff behind the Humboldt campus. Enjoy your time there.

Go Jacks! (and Jills!)
Nightsnakeman
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Nightsnakeman »

Very nice finds. I've found some beautiful Ensatina morphs near Eureka and up in the community forest. The morphs get very beautiful where picta andoregonensis intergrade. The specimens in that area morphologically resemble ones from around Orick

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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Jimi »

I wouldn't complain, lol. :D I've actually only seen one snake since I've been out there
Oh, you can do a lot better than that starting around March. The diversity is not great but the numbers can impress, as can some of the "morphs".

Along the Mad just above Blue Lake is really good for 3-4 species of garters - just stumble around the cobbles and watch your step. Ordinoides in several flavors too.

Kneeland - Swinging Bridge area is great for afternoon & evening cruising for gorgeous high-contrast oreganus, plus other warm-climate snakes like racers & gophers. Prob there are Cal kings up there (maybe even zonata in the rocks & poison oak?) but I didn't try very hard. It's also a great area for a cool swim in the sun & heat, a bit closer & a WAY nicer drive than out to Willow Creek.

The industrial timberlands all over the area (e.g., on the way to Kneeland) are good for boa & Contia flipping in the clearcuts, and garters along the creeks. (It's better IMO a little beyond the heavy-fog belt.)

The sand dunes along the spit are pretty decent for garters too, around the swale ponds where the hylids & red-legs are thick. The TNC preserve (maybe they flipped it by now???) above the slough is AWESOME!!! (As is canoeing the slough.)

Hope that Humboldt is good to you. I had a blast there (kind of like a rugged, chilly Mississippi, ha ha - pretty banjo-worthy). Just don't get carried away with the local specialty crop.

Good luck avoiding the Dreaded Humboldt Crud! And if you can get any pick-up work either planting trees on the timberlands, or picking flowers at the bulb farms, I recommend both for building character and getting some interesting perspective. A lot different from the wildlife jobs.

Cheers,
Jimi
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Natalie McNear
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Natalie McNear »

Thanks everyone. :thumb:

Jimi - Thanks for the tips! I definitely plan to do some more exploring (especially inland past the fog) once it warms up a bit. Before summer anyway - I really despise cold weather so I'm trying to get another job in the South for the summer, as soon as I can. I plan on setting up some boardlines out there that hopefully should produce some good stuff before I graduate.
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Jimi »

Sure thing Nat. Like I said, I hope you really enjoy yourself there.

Drying out and warming up inland are 100% necessities IMO for mentally surviving "actually living in" (versus just visiting) far-northern coastal Cali. There's no real climatic need to return to SE USA to warm up. You can roast your ass just a few miles inland right where you are. DTHs routinely exceed 90F all summer, and there are plenty of spots and days that break 100. Even better, there are way less bloodsuckers. Ticks, biting flies, & skeeters can be bad, sometimes heinous, but Thank God there are no chiggers and usually no gnats. Anyway, I think the decision "what to do in the summer" relies more on where you want to build skills and contacts for your post-college life. If you want to go back to the south to live, work there. If you want to stay in the west, work there. Working in NorCal while at school there gives you the opportunity to explore the region more on weekends, and also to get back to Arcata some weekends for concerts & festivals (and the Kinetic Sculpture Race!!!), seeing friends, managing your home life if you have a rental you really don't want to let go, etc etc. Just stuff to consider.

Boardlines would be extremely productive for reptiles and amphibians. A transect from coast to inland would be interesting I suspect. Also though, you can probably save some major effort by taking advantage of that area's rural redneck "trashy" character, and find their roadside dump sites. Just improve the layout of what's already there - move stuff into or out of the shade, spread or stack items as needed, etc. (Watch out for meth crap though.) Additionally, in the industrial timberlands take advantage of the cull decks (unmerchantable logs piled at landings). People cut a lot of firewood there but you'll find lots of rounds and hard-to-split logs left for flipping. It's interesting to see the differences that tree species make in what you find underneath, under the bark, and inside cracks & rotten spots.

If there's faculty (curators?) there with any interest (to help with the scientific collecting permit required to do it legally), I also found pitfall trapping in that area productive for some things (and disgusting if your buckets don't drain well - squishy shrews etc). Digging in Humboldt is usually easy - pedogenesis is rapid there, soils are mostly quite deep. Could be interesting to do in conjunction with the junk piles & boardlines. Just a thought.

Besides the amphibs, one way to make the rainy season there a lot more fun is to get into salmonids. There's a ton of survey work, habitat assessment and restoration, etc. Seeing big athletic fish running up tiny steep creeks to spawn is other-worldly. Check it out if you haven't discovered that yet. It can be kind of religious or something. Hard to explain. Very cool though, could "change your life".

Cheers,
Jimi
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by hellihooks »

Our Nor Cal Regional Ed Spec. Lucas, will be attending Humbolt as well. :thumb: Top notch guy in all respects... :thumb: jim
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Re: Some 'phibs!

Post by Porter »

That second shot of the Painted is unreal...! Nice finds :thumb:
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