Full Moon Cruising Along the Rio Grande

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Ben
Posts: 26
Joined: December 13th, 2010, 11:40 am

Full Moon Cruising Along the Rio Grande

Post by Ben »

Long story short, I took a trip down to the Big Bend area last Friday night. Cruising full moons can be dodgy, but with a bit of effort and planning, one can still turn up some animals here and there.

First up was this nice Kansas Glossy Snake (Arizona elegans elegans). Found while stopping for my hundredth stick of the night. lol

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The next snake... Was amazing... I really didn't expect it.

*LIFER* Chihuahuan Lyre Snake (Trimorphodon biscutatus vilkinsonii)

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I probably would have found many more snakes, had I not been totally engrossed in taking photos of that lyre for so long. I was not leaving without photos I could be more or less happy with. lol

Literally right after the lyre, we found our third live snake, a nice little Texas Night Snake (Hypsiglena torquata jani)

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After that, we found one little yearling atrox. No photos, unfortunately. I'm kinda done photographing atrox for the year, as this one was my 27th so far... lol.

Here's the full list:

2 Crotalus atrox (1 DOR)
1 Coluber flagellum testaceus (Got off the road way too fast, beautiful crimson color too)
1 Rhinocheilus lecontei tessellatus (DOR)
1 Arizona elegans elegans
1 Trimorphodon biscutatus vilkinsonii
1 Hypsiglena torquata jani

Looking forward to the rest of the season.
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Ruxs
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Location: London, United Kingdom

Re: Full Moon Cruising Along the Rio Grande

Post by Ruxs »

The last macro of the Lyre was brilliant!
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monklet
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Re: Full Moon Cruising Along the Rio Grande

Post by monklet »

Congrats on the vilkinsonii :beer:
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gbin
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Joined: June 10th, 2010, 4:28 pm

Re: Full Moon Cruising Along the Rio Grande

Post by gbin »

monklet wrote:Congrats on the vilkinsonii :beer:
Ditto, and a lovely specimen it is, at that! And please note that although the State of TX is still behind the times, the Chihuahuan lyre is now considered its own species (T. vilkinsonii) rather than just a subspecies of T. biscutatus. Kudos to you for using the more appropriate common name Chihuahuan lyre, though, as lots of people (especially in TX) still use the antiquated and inaccurate common name TX lyre snake.

Lyre snakes are definitely species that I think of as perhaps actually being more often found on bright, moonlit nights. Cooler (sometimes even downright cold), windy nights, too. On a number of occasions they have been the only snakes I've found out on the road on such nights. I wonder how much more common these species would be perceived to be if herpers more commonly hunted within their ranges on such nights...

Gerry

Edited to correct spelling of T. vilkinsonii. ;)
Ben
Posts: 26
Joined: December 13th, 2010, 11:40 am

Re: Full Moon Cruising Along the Rio Grande

Post by Ben »

Thanks all!

@Gerry: Good to know. I'm a bit more behind on colubrid taxonomic status than I'd like to be, but hey you gotta find out somehow. ;)

Also, that's very interesting. That would be a very interesting trend. I sure wouldn't be opposed to associating full moons with Trimorphs. Thanks for the info!
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AndyO'Connor
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Location: Pacific Northwest

Re: Full Moon Cruising Along the Rio Grande

Post by AndyO'Connor »

I will say that I've only found 2 live lyres on the road (with only a handful of nights roadcruising in their range) and the first was the only live snake of the night, very cold and windy, temps in the LOW 50s, and the other was at the end of a decent night, but with a bright moon, and it had cooled down to low 60s and we hadn't seen another snake in nearly an hour. Very cool looking snake, thanks for sharing.
chad ks
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Re: Full Moon Cruising Along the Rio Grande

Post by chad ks »

That's awesome! Those trimorphs are not easy to find...
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