Gilchrist & Area

[Noah M]

Met up with Mr. Ratcliffe to check out some uplands in the Gilchrist County area. It was pretty slow most of the day. We cruised for several hours, did some short hikes. He found some neat tadpoles on the edge of Alachua County and got some great frog pictures there. He can share them here if he wants.

Saw a few of these


And a couple of these



After one of the hikes, he had a couple of these on his car.


There had been a couch somebody dumped and we checked around it. I saw what I thought was a Greenhouse Frog, but wasn't sure. I went back later in the afternoon after we had parted ways and found a nice reddish looking one, so we were right. There still might have been a few Hyla around there too the first time. The cushions held some moisture, which made for nice microhabitat.


Unfortunately for Matt, about 25 minutes after we split up so he could start his drive back south I tried cruising a road parallel to the road we had been on all day. This road was exactly 1 mile over from the one we had spent most of our time. It produced a nice 4' or so Drymarchon couperi

So Gilchrist isn't that bad of a place after all.

[mtratcliffe]

I still can't believe after all those hours of road cruising and only turning up a few Black Racers that escaped us, we part ways and you find that beautiful Indigo not long after. That said, I still had a great time, and I appreciate you showing me around. Still not sure why we never saw a Gopher Tortoise despite finding all of those burrows.

I dip-netted a few Bullfrog tadpoles at a pond.





And here are some FL Leopard Frogs I also caught at the same place.







Fence Lizards at the parking lot where we hiked. This one was chilling on my car's rear tire.



This one was on a fence as I left.



Two Walking Sticks (I believe) mating on a fence at the parking lot



Habitat Shot as the morning fog burned off



We found this skull during our hike - anyone know the species? Is it a vole?



After Noah and I split, I made a stop at Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park on my way home. Saw a few gators, a few bullfrogs, heard a barred owl, and I believe I also briefly heard the snore of a Gopher Frog off in the distance at one point. I wasn't able to get a recording, unfortunately.











All in all, it was a great day, even if I missed out on seeing more snakes than I had hoped!

[BillMcGighan]

Good post, Guys.

The frog on a lilypad looks like a stereotypical character or something out of a great children's book (Tuesday by David Wiesner).

[Noah M]

Can anybody ID the skull? It looks like a rodent of sorts with those teeth.

[PNWHerper]

Captainjack,

The skull is a rodent. Do you still have it? I would need to look at the molars and other skull features to id it. Do you have shots of the skull from directly above, underneath and from the side?

[mtratcliffe]

Bill - every Bullfrog I saw that day was sitting on a lilypad, believe it or not!

Captainjack,

The skull is a rodent. Do you still have it? I would need to look at the molars and other skull features to id it. Do you have shots of the skull from directly above, underneath and from the side?

Sorry, that's the only picture we took. It was a neat oddity, and we placed it back where it was found. It appeared to have been rather worn out in the elements, as the bone was soft.

[PNWHerper]

I suspect your skull was part of an owl pellet, given how intact it is and how the upper and lower mandibles are still together.

Any other bones associated with it? Was it found near the base of a tree or near a fence post?

[Noah M]

I think Matt found found it on a log.

[JakeScott]

The road that runs along the place you hiked (I've hiked that land before also, pretty cool) and the northern perpendicular road, is GREAT for cruising. I've seen a dor indigo about 10 yards from that parking lot. Also a live plati on the northern perpendicular road a few blue moons ago.

Good stuff!

-Jake

[mtratcliffe]

The road that runs along the place you hiked (I've hiked that land before also, pretty cool) and the northern perpendicular road, is GREAT for cruising. I've seen a dor indigo about 10 yards from that parking lot. Also a live plati on the northern perpendicular road a few blue moons ago.

Good stuff!

-Jake

I'm going to have to try that road another season some time. It may have been too hot that day - temps hit 90 (low humidity though) by 2 or 3 PM.

[Noah M]

The road that runs along the place you hiked (I've hiked that land before also, pretty cool) and the northern perpendicular road, is GREAT for cruising. I've seen a dor indigo about 10 yards from that parking lot. Also a live plati on the northern perpendicular road a few blue moons ago.

Good to know the places I've scouted actually are good places. I've heard on more than one occasion of people finding places that look great, but that seemingly never produce anything. Validation is critically important.