Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in February

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Carl Koch
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:45 pm
Location: West Milwaukee, WI

Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in February

Post by Carl Koch »

When you live in the northern part of the U.S., the non-herping season can get kind of long. So what’s a northern herper to do but go south? Now, in February, that means WAY south. My good herping buddy, Jake Seals, and I were itchin’ to see some of our “creeping” friends, so we looked at the calendar to find the first opportunity to high-tail it to warmer climes, and President’s Day weekend presented itself. Being a worship leader, I needed to get Sunday off, but once that was taken care of, the weekend was wide open. Now we needed targets for the trip. Being that February is early, even by southern herpin’ standards, we went with amphibians. But which ones?

Well, Jake and I figured we needed to head straight south in order to maximize the time available to herp, so we settled on northern Alabama as a geographic location, and went to work researching what ‘phibs we might find there. The green salamander, Aneides aeneus, was a species Jake and I both yearned to see and had discussed in earlier conversations we had had regarding our “most-wanted list”, and sure enough, it occurred in northern AL, so we now had our target.

Our next task was to begin researching habitat, habits, active season, etc. and to attempt to converse with those herpers knowledgable about the area we would be in and knowledgable about that particular herp. A website dealing with the herps of AL led us to an Alabaman named Todd who has a love of herps and is also a fine photographer. Todd got us in touch with a friend of his named Trey, who gave us some excellent tips regarding the green salamander and who also mentioned another species that occurs near northern AL: the Pigeon Mountain salamander. When Trey discovered how excited Jake and I were about sals, he suggested we meet up to see if we could find the "PM" sal, which was a species Trey had yet to see.

And so, the plan began to take shape. We would arrive in northern AL Saturday, hunt for green sals until Sunday, then meet up with Trey and go look for the PM sal. Now, Jake and I have had some AMAZING adventures in search of herps. In May of 2010, we got to witness a breeding explosion of eastern spadefoot toads in Jake’s home state, Indiana, and in late October of the same year, we were able to find mole salamanders in IN, which are only known from one location in the state. This trip would prove to be yet another exciting adventure with a notable find involved.

After work (I’m a teacher) on Friday 2/18, I began the journey to southern IN with the intent to stay at Jake’s place that night, and drive the remaining 6.5 hours to our AL destination beginning early the next morning. Jake and were both so geeked up about the trip however, that when I arrived at his place Friday night at 11PM, we decided to just continue to AL, driving through the night. Now, I used to pull all-nighters fairly regularly in past springs as I road-cruised ‘phibs on rainy nights in SE Wisconsin where I live, but I’m older now, and don’t fare so well any more after that kind of energy drain. Unfortunately, adrenaline got the best of me, and I threw caution to the wind and went for it.

The first day of herping was therefore a bit, um, unpleasant from an energy standpoint, but we found a few things regardless of our lethargy.

A couple hab shots.

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First find -- a lovely northern slimy sal.

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Jake conquers the ridge.

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A lovely stream at the top.

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Views from above.

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We didn’t expect any reptiles on this trip, but found two! 5-lined skink.

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A larger slimy. We found several on this trip.

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The locale we were at is known for huge beech trees.

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Unfortunately, people like to carve things in them.

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Along the ridge where we were searching for green sals, we found a cave, and in the cave we found northern dusky sals.

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Jake also spied cave sals way back in the crevices inside the cave, and we saw a salamander larva in a cave pool. Cave crickets and a variety of spiders, including some pretty large wolf spiders, were numerous.

We called it quits kinda early that night so the "old man" could sleep. Needless to say, we slept a few extra hours that night! The next morning, Trey showed up at our hotel room an hour early -- evidently, Jake and I weren’t the only ones who were geeked up! Trey is a great guy with a tremendous enthusiasm for herping. We headed to Pigeon Mountain, which is located in NW Georgia, and were delighted to have the day develop into a beautiful one, with periods of sun and a temp of around 70 degrees F.

Hab shot.

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Our first find was under this rock.

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Worm snake.

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Hopefully, this car was empty when it plummeted over the top of the mountain!

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Lead-back phase of the southern redback sal.

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Conditions didn’t seem likely to produce our target. Trey joked that the first to find a Pigeon Mountain salamander would buy lunch. Shortly after, Jake said something like, “I guess I’m buying lunch!” Unfortunately, the individual Jake found wasn’t accessible, and neither was the next he located. However, we found another nearby location where I flipped this lovely individual under a flat rock!

The Pigeon Mountain salamander, Plethodon petraeus.

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Needless to say, there was great rejoicing!!!

Trey at the "summit".

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Next, we found this water-filled valley.

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In the leaf-litter were tiny two-lined sals.

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Under a rock in the water was this amazing northern spring salamander larva [thanks for the I.D., Carl Brune!], which was about 5” long.

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In some more leaf litter, we found this southern redback sal with a somewhat unusual coloration.

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I liked the southern flavor of the name of this place.

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Jake and I decided to head back to AL for one more go at green sals, but first, we had to celebrate the day’s successes with a fine meal! After chowin’ down, we bid Trey a fond farewell, and headed back to our green sal area. In the cave I got a shot of our mystery larva which turned out to be a dusky.

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We found this adult under leaf-litter next to a seep.

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We ended the night with a very large cave sal we found eyeing us from a crevice. We were able to coax it out for pics.

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We’ll be back for the greens another time, but the trip was certainly a success! We began the drive back Monday morning. It was 60 degrees F when we got up. I dropped Jake off in S. IN around 3:30PM -- the temp was now in the 40s F, and it was raining. As I continued north, I started hearing reports on the radio of freezing rain. It started getting pretty slick as the temp continued to drop and I reduced my speed. The snow began in northern Illinois, and slick conditions and poor visibility forced me to drop my speed another 10 mph. By the time I reached the Wisconsin border, I was doing 25 mph below the speed limit. Just over the border, a car about three car-lengths ahead slid into the lefthand wall and then ricocheted backwards across all 3 lanes of traffic and down into the righthand ditch. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and a squad car happened to be right there so help arrived immediately. Yep, I was home again. I miss the south!

Thanks for coming along on the journey!

Carl
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Daniel D Dye
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Re: Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in Febr

Post by Daniel D Dye »

Thanks for taking me along...really, it was like being there. :)

I wish Yvonne and I had joined you guys.

DDD
Ecto Hunter
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Re: Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in Febr

Post by Ecto Hunter »

Glad to see you had a great trip despite the green sallies absence. That red sally larva and the Pigeon Mountain were my favorites. Also, congrats on the worm snake.
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pete
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Re: Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in Febr

Post by pete »

That's a fun trip! :thumb:

That funky redback is a looker!
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Carl Brune
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Re: Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in Febr

Post by Carl Brune »

Nice post. Some very cool Plethodons you've found there. BTW, I'm quite sure that big larva you found is a Spring Salamander, rather than a Red.
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cayrip
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Re: Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in Febr

Post by cayrip »

I'm jealous!
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Knightkrawler5
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Re: Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in Febr

Post by Knightkrawler5 »

Nice stuff Carl....I really like the worm snake...I'm hoping to find one of those this spring. Does Jake find a lot of copperheads and Timbers in that area? Cause it looks like awesome habitat!
dickbartlett
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Joined: June 25th, 2010, 11:32 am

Re: Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in Febr

Post by dickbartlett »

Tiz the season...
Indeed it is, Carl.
Great finds and greater photography. Thanx for the "heads up." Cheers/Dick
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Carl Koch
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Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:45 pm
Location: West Milwaukee, WI

Re: Plethodon petraeus: Ferreting out a Georgian Gem in Febr

Post by Carl Koch »

Thanks for your responses and compliments, everyone!

Triple D - we missed you and Yvonne!

EH - it WAS a fun trip, to be sure!

Pete - yeah, we really dug how that one looked...VERY pretty!

Carl - we were definitely in Pleth heaven! Thanks for the correction on the larva!

cayrip - we were VERY lucky to be able to do this trip!

Stu - yeah, we were thinkin' the same thing on that hab, and hope to see coppers & timbers when we go back in June. Jake's never been there before.

Dick - you're a GREAT writer & photographer...your compliments mean a lot to me!

Carl
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