On Sunday me and a few herpers from some of the surrounding counties went out to see what we could find at a few of my city spots. Turned out to be quite the day. All in all we came upon 15 Pacific Ringneck snakes, 4 Arboreal salamanders, lots of Fence lizard, a few California Alligator lizards, and 3 Coast Garters.

Here are some pictures of what we found-
























When you herp in SF, everyone gets a Coastie


I'll be throwing these into the database shortly.

Luke

Very nice!

JimM

Freakin' awesome! That one arboreal with the big ole head is impressive. Favorite bay area salamander!

Nice. I'm looking forward to a full day in SFO on the 24th. I can't wait....

Man!, Cool Find

Looks like you had a great day of herping with some cool folks. That last picture says it all Thanks for another great post, Luke Love those monster Arboreals!

You might be the first person to ever look forward to a whole day in the San Francisco airport.

JimM

Fun stuff Luke! You didn't mention how the three coasties were all caught in about three minutes time! That arboreal was pretty big. There were actually more like seven arboreals found. Come on out to Marin soon. We'll get you that king, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Great meeting you and finally getting that city snake! There're a couple more spots I want to check out. I only took one picture. The first ringer I found, as that was my first SF snake. I'll post that here as soon as I have some time. Again, great meeting/herping with you. Thanks for driving/guiding!

Luke, that trip was awesome! Thanks again for letting me come along! Everything went just right!

Here are a few shots from my end:

ringneck


ringneck


baby alligator lizard


adult alligator lizard

If I wore nail polish, that's probably what my nails would look like... Sounds like some fun times, up in da bay. bout time for my area to GO OFF, but what sucks is me working like 7 days a week... Not next Tues, though... It's my Birthday, and I WILL HERP, rather than work... jim

Great meeting/herping with you too, Layla. (sp)

You forgot to mention that you are the official one-day Ringneck record holder in San Francisco proper! What was it? 9 in less than an hour--your herping skills are definitely Jedi level.

I'm ready for some Marin Co. action in the next couple of weeks.

Herping at the airport...hmm...must investigate.

Glad you enjoyed it Nice shots of the gator lizard.

Yeh, I say SFO, but actually it's a scheduled overnight. I fly LAX to SFO and arrive around 6:30am. Leave the next day at 8:00am for Tokyo. So hotel in Burlingame for the 24 hrs. Gonna find at least 1 of everything, rain or shine! LOL.

Found a nice field by the airport, but it's gated with strict warnings not to enter. I'm sure there are others though....

There is no try. Only do. Yeah I really know how to flip a rock! Here's my one pic. My first San Francisco snake! Yay!

There is definitely some promising terrain out that way.

Nice shot--love the definition of the scales.

Awesome stuff, guys! It was great getting out in the field with all y'all... And I use the term "field" loosely since it was actually in the middle of the city.

Glad you guys had a great outting! Let's hope we have future opputunites to hit SF soon!
Will I be seeing you guys at the SC survey? Devlin? Natalie? Luke, we should carpool as we talked about.

I'm in for sure.

Great finds! I bet you got some odd stares from some of the city folk.

L

I find that if I'm with other people or if I have a camera around my neck, people don't seem too disturbed; if I'm by myself wandering around in bushes and off trails...well, that's another story.

Luke-

Hey Mr. Talltree,

Im a 17 year old who lives right in San Francisco but I do most of my herping in Marin as I am over there for mountain biking and Search and Rescue a lot. I would love to ask you a question about your city adventures. Could you check your PM?

Thanks,
Neil