A Nebraskan who can't stay out of Kansas

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neherper
Posts: 129
Joined: June 11th, 2011, 8:31 am

A Nebraskan who can't stay out of Kansas

Post by neherper »

Took another trip into Kansas for a herp outing. My goal was to find a Texas Horned lizard. A friend, (Dan Fogell), told me about a road south of Manhattan, Ks where he and Travis Taggart had seen them the previous year and years before. I found the road and the habitat was good, but no horned lizard in sight. I failed miserably...this time. I will return again in summer. On the way down there my girlfriend and I stopped at some of my herping spots and flipped a few rocks and walked a few streams. Like I said, I failed at finding a horned lizard but here is what we did find.

Lizzy, my girlfriend flipped the first reptile of the trip...Great Plains Skink, we ended up finding about 10.

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The habitat.

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As flipped.

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Of course beside skinks residing here there were ringnecks a plenty.
I threw this one in a hole, it would just not stay still.

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A limestone spring I like to herp for frogs. The area is also littered with copperheads, I didn't bother looking to hard for any this trip.
Worm snakes have been seen here also, we didn't find one on this trip.

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Ribbit Ribbit bullfrog.

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A popular tourist attraction, part of the Oregon Trail, not many people herp here but I do! Also a good place to take a shower after a day of getting dirty.

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No herps were found here but pretty none the less.

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After this spot we headed down to southern Manhattan in search of a Texas Horned lizard.
I saw this nice burned flint hill that was beckoning to be herped. There was a barbwire fence so I went knocking on the closest house. A couple houses later the land owner said I could get on and flip them rocks. We found only Great Plains Skinks and we decided to hit the rock cuts along the road that had the horned lizards.

The burned flint hill.

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The second rock cut we hit had this guy out basking. Of course I had to pull it off the rocks for some shots.
Bullsnake.

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A male Collard Lizard was out basking on the next rock cut.

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Texas Horned Lizard habitat.

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After a miserable fail on the horned lizard we made our way back towards Nebraska. We hit a few cuts on the way back.
We found plenty of Western Narrowmouth Toads, about 15 total. So many Narrowmouths 10 miles south of the Nebraska border into Marshall County, Kansas and Nebraska only has a couple locations in Gage county where you can find them. It's amazing how 10 miles can make a difference between being abundant in one state and rare in the next state.

3 under 1 rock.

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Smile for the camera toady.

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On the last road cut we found 1 Emoryi's Ratsnake and 1 Speckled Kingsnake, both newborns last year. It was hot and they did not want to sit still for photos. I collected them for a friend of mine so all I have for pics is snake in hand at home, my apologies.

Emoryi's Ratsnake AKA Great Plains Ratsnake

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Speckled Kingsnake, was in blue when found. It shed the other day so it looks a lot nicer now.

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Back into Nebraska I stopped to flip some metal quick. 1 Western Ratsnake was found.

Nicely patterned Western Ratsnake in-situ.

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A couple of non herps found on this trip. One I like and one I don't like.

Brown Recluse, I don't seeing these under rocks.

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Striped Bark Scorpion, I like scorpions :)

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Well that's folks!
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chris_mcmartin
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Re: A Nebraskan who can't stay out of Kansas

Post by chris_mcmartin »

I just realized KS doesn't have limited nonresident licenses (e.g. 5-day), just the $72.50 annual. Those two little snakes were expensive!
neherper
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Joined: June 11th, 2011, 8:31 am

Re: A Nebraskan who can't stay out of Kansas

Post by neherper »

have an annual + other collection permits.
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Brandon D
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Re: A Nebraskan who can't stay out of Kansas

Post by Brandon D »

chris_mcmartin wrote:I just realized KS doesn't have limited nonresident licenses (e.g. 5-day), just the $72.50 annual. Those two little snakes were expensive!
Ha ha ha did it go down? I thought it was 75 back when I use to hunt ks all the time, I would of figured it would of went up. I was also told by a kansas game warden you needed it just to lift rocks, regardless if you were collecting or not, however the last couple times I have been in ks I didn't purchase one, I will if I intend on collecting or go to places I know I could be hastled by the man.
:beer:
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chris_mcmartin
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Re: A Nebraskan who can't stay out of Kansas

Post by chris_mcmartin »

I think Kansas uses the "expanded" definition of "hunt" as some other states do, wherein "pursuing" is considered "hunting" regardless of actual take--so if you see an animal moving away from you, and you follow it, technically you need a license.

Kansas takes it a step further by requiring a hunting license for invertebrates too.
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Steve Atkins
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Re: A Nebraskan who can't stay out of Kansas

Post by Steve Atkins »

I always love your posts, cool snakes. I really dig the Great plain Skinks too
neherper
Posts: 129
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Re: A Nebraskan who can't stay out of Kansas

Post by neherper »

The price did go up. I can't remember what I payed in January. $85 or so. Kansas actually seems to quite leanient on collecting herps unlike Iowa and Missouri. It's more like Nebraska I'd say. Also most law enforcers do not know the laws and just get into what you are doing, IE ask questions about the animals. IF I do get hassled and I leave my permit at home or in another vehicle I just say I'm collecting for the colleges. That's if I even collect that day. Pictures always suffice for me.
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