Great Herping in Zombie Land

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bewilderbeast
Posts: 121
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 11:22 am

Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by bewilderbeast »

Monterey County: 2011 so far....

It's like a magical forest brimming with artificial cover.
Creepy, abandoned, overgrown children's playground anyone? burnt out tank hulks? Quick sand? Don't forget the constant adrenaline rush and excitement you get from the possibility of having your leg blown off by forgotten ordinance!

Good herping though... and it's still early in the year. The usual suspects, really... but glad to be finding some snakes. And did I mention more boards
than you could fathom in your wildest dreams?

sorry for the low quality of some of the photos, just my point and click.

Image twofer.

This is actually the first California Kingsnake I had ever flipped under cover... all the rest have been cruised at night.
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Santa Lucia Mountain Salamander Batrachoseps luciae... it's the new Batrachoseps attenuatus!

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Vernal pools
These are some of the smaller pools... my little camera couldn't do the large ones justice...
some were absolutely mammoth expanses of marsh land... supporting wading birds and waterfowl
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a larger one
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and of course
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Not photographed... 1 coast horned lizard....... 4 bazillion western fence lizards...... 100 bazillion Pseudacris tadpoles.
I'll try and remember to take some more shots of all the junk and abandoned structures...
rjadams
Posts: 39
Joined: October 28th, 2010, 6:52 pm
Location: Salinas, CA

Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by rjadams »

Great shots!! and I certainly recognized some of those spots and you are right - minus the unexploded ordinance for extra challenging fun there some great herping to be had. One Monterey herper to another, if you have the chance, throw some of those records in the database. Monterey is still on the very low end of what is possible regarding records and distribution in the database.
Cheers!
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jonathan
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Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by jonathan »

very nice
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reptileKid
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Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by reptileKid »

Nice post! I liked the ringneck shot. Cool stuff flipping that king too!

-Cody
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Nature Nate
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Joined: August 24th, 2010, 10:14 am
Location: San Diego

Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by Nature Nate »

beautiful king! beautiful ringer! beautiful everything! It's been a while since I've seen a king with perfect banding all the way down the body and perfect "V" crown. I love the overall red on the ringneck. All the ones I have only have red that extends about two scales up from the vent. nice finds! :thumb: :thumb:
be sure to enter them in the database!
bewilderbeast
Posts: 121
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 11:22 am

Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by bewilderbeast »

I KNOW, RIGHT! PERFECT BANDING! and as bright white as you could hope to see up here... that might change with age, from its size it was obviously one of last year's offspring... eating frogs and fattening up.
bewilderbeast
Posts: 121
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 11:22 am

Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by bewilderbeast »

Oops... that ringneck is from Santa Cruz/Santa Clara? county in January... not Monterey.... I meant to write that in there... that was my first snake of 2011
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Ross Padilla
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Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by Ross Padilla »

Very nice finds. I like the close up of the ring necks belly. Nice king too. You don't see them with perfect bands that often. :thumb:
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concinnusman
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Joined: November 26th, 2010, 10:46 am
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Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by concinnusman »

I'm a huge garter snake fan myself. Great photos, nice finds!
bewilderbeast
Posts: 121
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 11:22 am

Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by bewilderbeast »

records filed.... AND filed a bunch of things from last summer that i had neglected



*EDIT* Oh snap! didn't realize that I had gotten so many county records with that outing... Monterey is certainly under-repesented eh? first redsided garter and cal king from the county?!? first skink? those things are ervrywhere.
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RenoBart
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Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by RenoBart »

I definitely need to get down there, Ben.

Bart
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Cannon
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Joined: December 15th, 2010, 8:39 am
Location: Hesperia, CA

Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by Cannon »

Wow! Great finds. Awesome photos too. That Garter is sweet. Love the head shot. :thumb:
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Owen
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Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by Owen »

Nice variety there. I was starting to get a little dozey of the boa posts :sleep:
bewilderbeast
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Joined: June 10th, 2010, 11:22 am

Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by bewilderbeast »

I'd love to see a boa.... :D
I know that socal is completely hoppin' right now... just getting warm enough up here though..
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Natalie McNear
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Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by Natalie McNear »

Holy crap, that's one hell of an AC site! :shock: Looks like most of it needs to be laid out properly? That's a sweet looking Infernalis too.
bewilderbeast
Posts: 121
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 11:22 am

Re: Great Herping in Zombie Land

Post by bewilderbeast »

Natalie: Are you volunteering?
That is just one small section of the structure... I believe they used to be some sort of garage-type buildings for military vehicles or large artillery.

The whole structure is about as long as two city blocks and most of it is falling over and FULL of ground squirrels.
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