Welcome aboard! I'll be swinging through Maryland this March on my return trip from Georgia. If the weather is right maybe you'd be interested in meeting up for a night time road search.

OH I know of a pretty decent spot here in MD to look for those early herps! *counting the days until mid march*

Hello everyone. My name is Tom . I have been keeping reptiles for over 20 years but have only been actively field herping for about 10. I have located every turtle species in PA. except Bog turtles. I have about 5 regular places I herp and thats about it because I really don't have time to locate new areas or even go to my old spots most days. Last year I found my first spotted salamander population and I was thrilled!! Also once a year I go to bucks county river country and view map turtles for most of the trip. I will never ask for anyones spots but I would love to view a spotted salamander migration. The only reason I haven't posted much up to this point is because I didn't know how to post pics.

Welcome Tom. Have you figured out the pictures yet? If not, I'll PM you some help.

Bob

Apologies for waiting so long to put my bio back up, so here goes:

My name is Matthew Jennette, 24 yrs old and originally from Dover, DE. I graduated from the University of Delaware in 2008 with a BS in Wildlife Conservation and recently wrapped up my MS in Environmental Science from Towson University. As a graduate student I investigated the effects of urbanization on life history traits of pond-breeding amphibians. More specifically, I looked at population age structure, adult body size, and maternal reproductive investment in wood frogs and American toads breeding in Baltimore County, MD. As a kid I owned a few turtles and lizards and enjoyed seeing snakes while hiking, but I never knew of "herping" until I took Herpetology as an undergrad. My instructors did a great job opening my eyes to a whole new world of field herping, and since then I was hooked. However, it wasn't until I discovered this forum in 2009 that I took herping seriously and began scouting spots, learning species, and getting into photography.

Also, I imagine I am one of the few members of this forum that is more interested in anurans/salamanders than snakes. Not sure if its the spring migrations that excite me too much, or because they are easier to photograph, but I sure do love those slimy critters.

Matthew A. Jennette
Secretary - NAFHA Northeast Chapter

My name is Mark. Im 40 years old, moved from central PA to southern New Jersey about 18 years ago. I started herping as a kid, I was always out in the woods, loved spending my time catching frogs, snakes, and turtles. Eventually I had to grow up, get a job and my carefree herping days ended. About 10 years ago my wife and I started fostering kids. All kids seem to love hiking, canoeing, and camping. These activities led to night frog hunts with flashlights, and snake hunting hikes in the woods which the kids loved and at the same time learned a lot. Now that the kids are gone and we are done fostering I am more into herping then I was as kid. So far I have photographed 48 different species.
I really like the photography aspect of the hobby, I love studying and observing reptiles and amphibians in the natural habitat. But I think my favorite part of the hobby is just being outside and exploring from the central PA rivers to the swamps of Jersey, to the great NJ pines.

Thanks for the bio Mark!

hey all herpers my name is eric, i'm from westmoreland pa and love herps(more like an obsession) i have a national audubon society field guide to north american reptiles and amphibians book with checklist and i hope to check off every species native to north america. there are still many species left in pa i haven't found and would love some advice on where and when to look for them(still a novice at this)

Welcome Eric! Some good herpers out near you. Check out our database page at www.naherp.com

Vince here. I am currently an undergraduate student in biology and I love herps. I am a resident of Baltimore County in Maryland and have been for most of my life. I grew up on a property adjacent to a beautiful state park called Gunpowder Falls State Park. As a child I was always bringing home toads, garter snakes, and turtles. I was fortunate enough to have a father who felt the need to educate me on every animal and plant I found or asked about. This formed my love for herpetology, ecology, and everything biology. So here I am! Sharing with and learning from others that share the same love for life.

Thanks Vince, we need records from Baltimore city in our database.

Howdy all,
I've been living off and on in Baltimore for a little over a year. I've been super busy so my herping has been limited, but I always get excited during the amphib migration and when other stuff starts emerging from hibernation. I grew up in upstate NY, where my parents nurtured my innate love for herps (one thing that's always interested me is how 99% of herpers where seemingly born with their obsession, and I'd ove to know the genetic reasoning behind it). After college I've worked as a biotech in AZ, NV, PA, FL, CA, UT (only a little), Brazil, Japan, and Mexico (the country, not NM). I've also travelled and herped through Central America, South America, and SE Asia. Costa Rica was my most productive and favorite country, with Corcovado NP topping the list. My last job working for someone else was perhaps my best, working on a wildlife film crew in SE Asia. We did a number of storuies on herps, and you better believe I was out all night with my headlamp every night. My favorite stuff are venemous and varanids, but anything will get me excited in the field.
Now that I'm in Baltimore while my GF finishes her Masters at Hopkins, I've gone into business for myself. This has left me with zero money and I spend all my time in front of a computer. Sucks. But, things are looking up, temps are up, critters are out!
Cheers,
Alex

Hi everyone!

I've been a lurker on this sub-forum for a while, but haven't posted nearly enough. Like most of you I've been catching frogs and snakes most of my life. However, it wasn't until about four years ago that I realized I could actually target them. Since then my nature walks, hikes and travels have never been the same.

I'm really interested in the academic side of biology -- specifically evolutionary biology and ecology. It seems my love for finding and catching herps is a perfect outlet or way to get ideas for my academic passion.

I've worked on tons of things from chytrid in Ohioan salamanders, to behavioral isolation in Sceloporus in White Sands NM, to herp surveys in Southern Vietnam and chimpanzee conservation projects in Cote d'Ivoire. I usually post my findings here on FHF, and have for the last two years, but have been not as active in NAFA as I want to be. That's mostly because I've been out of the country so much and moving around from place to place within the states. That's about to change this summer as I'll be home in NJ. Somerset, Hunterdon, Raritan and Bridgewater counties can expect a major up lifting in the board.

I look forward to meeting all you guys in the field and sharing some cool stories!

-Alex

Thanks for the bio Alex.

Hey, Guy from Morris County NJ here. Have been into nature pretty much all my life (hiking, bird watching, etc) and have always had an interest in reptiles and amphibs. Never really knew there was anything like Herp groups until recently. Have already made contact with one of the Jersey guys here.

Good afternoon everyone!

My name is Mike Currie and I live in Carlisle PA. I used to live in MA until 2003 when I went to collge in central PA and received my B.S. in Environmental Science.
During college I spent 3 years partnered with The Nature Conservancy conducting vernal pool surveys and was able to put together several works, mostly for public use, in order to educate people about these important habitats that are all too often simply walked by (to see one of these works, visit http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/re ... olbook.pdf ).
I am looking at attending Shippensburg University in the next year to achieve my Master's of Biology with a concentration in Herpetology.
I am participating in the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program, as I'm sure many of you are as well, and will be attending the Lancaster Herpetological Society Meetings as well as the NEPARC Annual Meeting in August.
My newest project is to re-discover the Eastern Mud Salamander, Pseudotriton montanus, here in PA; a species that has not been seen since 1991.
If there is anyone in the southcentral PA region and would like to assist in this project or simply go herping together, please let me know!My e-mail is [email protected] . I look forward to becoming a part of this group!

Sincerely,
Mike

Some of us wouldn't mind helping you search for a mud salamander... Welcome aboard.

Mike,
My 9 year old begs me to go looking for Muds all the time. Actually, I'd love to if I wasn't two hours away from Cumberland County area. Good luck. I'll keep it in mind if we head out that way and maybe we can go looking together.
Bob

Hi all,
my name is Nazzareno , I'm italian but moved in NYC about 3 years ago.
In italy I was a breeder of different species of colubrids, I enjoy going herping but I really have no ideas where I could go in the area.
I'd like to find herpers in the NY/CT/NJ area to go herping in the weekends

Welcome Nazzareno. If you have any fieldherping pics from back in Italy, feel free to post a thread here. There's some good herpers up your way.

Hello Brick,
unfortunately I have no pics of Italy, I had no camera when I used to go there. But I hope to post pics of my herping here in USA

Looking forward to it.

Hello. I am from Lancaster county Pa. I started field herping as a child with my best friend. We would go into the woods behind our houses and bring stuff home for a week or two. We would let it go and find something new to keep for the next few weeks. I have a small collection of CB snakes now. I have a good bit of experance with breeding snakes. My favs are the elapids but no longer keep hots. I still go field herping with my best friend and my children but had better luck when I was a child. LOL

Welcome Frank, be sure to check out our data base and by laws at www.naherp.com
Sign up for an account over there! The Lancaster area is awesome...

Hi, I'm Jim. I currently am back in Boston, where I grew up. I'm 39. I have a BS in wildlife and fisheries biology from UVM, then after working in the Wisconsin DNR's Bureau of Endangered Resources for five years I earned a MPA from UW Madison. Most of my herping has been done in Eastern MA, Wisconsin and Western KY where I spent a summer surveying for Copperbelly Watersnakes. Most of my vacations are spent chasing herps and I've been fortunate enough to spend time in SE California, SW Texas, South FL in the U.S. and Belize, Costa Rica and Cambodia over the past several years chasing critters and trying to photograph them.

Thanks for posting Jim, Welcome!

Hello everyone my name is Matthew Kirby and I’m new to this forum but have been a reader for awhile before joining. I love getting outdoors and finding all sorts of critters. Mainly I love snakes and yes even the extremely stinky ring necks which I was stunk on by one today(gag). I have been getting out a lot with my brother to areas all over MD. We even took a trip to NC recently and I found my first ever corn snake and king snake which were AMAZING. My favorite snake of all time is the hognose which has eluded me for 2 years now. Hopefully I will stumble across one this year before its end and I do mean HOPEFULLY. Although I work in a toy store I try to still inform people of how snakes play a extremely important roll in our eco-system and they are generally not bad and seem to go by a live and let live policy. I get really upset when people are needlessly killing snakes especially because the majority of them in our area aren’t venomous they are just flashy to ward off predators. Why do people hate what they don’t seem to understand GOD. Anyway I’m rambling so farewell for the time being. Oh I am taking a trip out west soon to try and find some new herps. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Hi Guys,
My name is Brendan Murray and I'm addicted to Herping. I have been lurking on the forum for a while now and thought I'd finally introduce myself. I have always loved wildlife and grew up in NJ about 5 mins away from the Great Swamp NWR. I loved snakes, turtles, frogs but never really knew went out of my way to try and find them. I went to college in Michigan and in January graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in economics.(GO Spartans) In MI I met my wife and we got married in May 2010. It was during that summer that I really got into field herping largely due to watching youtube videos and finding this forum. After graduating I moved to Frederick, Maryland for my current job. I've found more herps here this spring than I have in my entire lifetime. I contribute that to mostly to my learning curve and also the fact that Maryland is a great place to herp! I will post some of my year highlights soon!

Welcome guys.

Hi. My name is Stephen Staedtler. I live in Central Bucks County (PA) and am an accountant. However, I grew up with my Dad having a ton of pet turtles. He used to quiz my brother and I on types of reptiles and amphibians while driving us to school (we had a moderately long drive). We also went in canoes and caught turtles (usually letting them go) in the Pine Barrens in South Jersey and also in a lot of places in Florida, including off of the Suwannee River. While I had pets such as tiger salamanders, bearded dragons, and a monkey tailed skink when I was younger, with having two kids and being married I just haven't had the time to have many pets. But I had recently started posting my pictures online on facebook, and people told me I should take pictures of animals more often. So I went to parks and took pictures of turtles, frogs, snakes, hawks, ducks, deer, landscapes, or just kind of anything. While in the process of trying to find turtles and snakes, I stumbled upon NAHerp.com to try to get clues of the best places to look for reptiles and amphibians. Shortly after I started to post a few pictures and away I went. Absolutely love looking at the NAHerp sightings...

I am a huge Philadelphia Eagles fan and partial season ticket holder, and also very involved in my church. I used to be the commissioner of the church softball league, manager of our team, and a player, but now I just play. If it was up to me, I'd be out a lot more taking pictures of reptiles and amphibians, but I've been limited by family commitments (my son has Asperger's Syndrome) and also that I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia a few years ago so I deal with a lot of pain and chronic fatigue. Still, I love being out in nature....there is something so peaceful about it and getting away from everything. Look forward to talking to and meeting others on the board. Thanks for allowing me on.

Welcome. There's a few of us here in Bucks. I look forward to what you have to share.

Welcome Steve. Thanks for your contributions to the database. If you ever have questions, feel free to post them to the NE or Main Form. Also, Fibromyalgia is often a symptom of chronic lyme disease, you might want to look into that if you haven't been tested.

Nate

My wife has Fibro as well.

Hi Folks,
My name is Tom Harten, originally from Rockland County, NY but now in southern Maryland. I teach environmental education for a MD school system, so I get to combine my natural history interests with my profession on a daily basis. At the moment we have a lot of students working on the Maryland Amphibian and Reptile Atlas project and have really enjoyed working with students on this effort.

I have been field herping since I was a kid and still get out with friends that I herped with in middle school (we're all about 50 now!).

Anyway, looking forward to participating in this forum, I've already been enjoying some of the great pics that have been posted!

Tom

Thanks for the bio. Welcome!

Hey Everyone,
I couldn't remember ever putting up my bio so I just read all 4 pages to check. Nice to meet all of you and now a little about me.
I have lived in Burl Co since I was 6 so going on 44 yrs now.....damn I feel old now!
Anyway, started out in Medford as a little tyke and lived on a dead end dirt road with nothing to do except explore in the woods (we owned the woods from the Red Rooster on Tuckerton rd past Barton Run before it was there to New rd in Marlton!) and ride our bikes behind the mosquito smog truck when they came down the street (boy was that dumb or what?) For some reason though the snakes came out after he went by. A lot of black rats and kings and even corns back then. First herp I found was the day we moved here from philly and I thought the grass was moving and being a city kid didn't know any better so I reached for it and whoa this thing is alive! My first green! A week later I found this big ball of a snake and it was a king constricting a garter boy was I hooked.
Regrettably I lost touch with the outdoors through my high school years and my party years and early marriage years. Kids are older now and wife doesn't mind me going out for my sanity breaks so I am back to the outdoors! I have since gotten back to what I would say is being a casual herper. I see a lot and photo a lot so I will be posting some pics for sure. If you ever see me I am the guy with the slr camera wrapped around his left wrist always in shorts. Seem to do better keeping ticks off me that way. I have lived in Tabernacle now going on 14 years. Work in Delaware as a computer programmer analyst so any chance I can get out is a godsend.
Gary

Thanks Gary, the mosquito smog truck brings back memories.

Welcome, Gary. I love Tabernacle and I always pass through when I'm down there!

Hello everyone! My name is Siobhan, I'm 26 and I live in Frederick County Maryland. I mentioned on another post (before I came across this one) I'm originally from Boston, MA. Living outside the city I never got the opportunity to come across anyone who herped nor even knew about herping. It didn't help I come from a family that are terrified of snakes, frogs, lizards, well basically anything other than a dog or cat. Although, ever since I was little I've been fascinated by reptiles and amphibians. My first memory of holding a snake was at age 10 when I was a part of a school assembly and there were about 10 of us holding a gigantic boa! It was incredible! I wasn't introduced to herping until I started dating my current boyfriend. We would go on hikes a lot and occasionally find common snakes, but it finally became an obsession when I saw my first hognose snake. Seeing that snake was so incredible, I had to see more. We now try to herp as much as possible and I'm trying to learn as much as I can. Who knows, maybe I've found a new calling?

Thanks for the bio. Be sure to check out our database page at www.naherp.com and www.nafha.org , our home page.

Kyle

Also, consider volunteering for the MD Herp Atlas, http://www.marylandnature.org/mara/index.htm

Welcome Siobhan! That's a great example of infecting a kid with enthusiasm that could last a lifetime. Is your boyfriend on this site or part of NAFHA? Sounds like the two of you could do some damage together if your willing to contribute to the database.

Thanks!!! I'm going to try my best to contribute to the database. I have to figure it all out. I'm not sure if he is part of the NAFHA but, he is part of this site -- You guys know him as kirbyl4. You can thank his brother incuhead2000 for getting us hooked on this site.

Awesome! Welcome Steph! Thanks for the bio...
Also, go to our database page and sign up for an account there as well.

hi all,
my name is steve. I live near baltimore. I've been looking for/catching snakes and other herps as long as i can remeber. Snakes are by far my favorite tho. I spend a lot of time out herping. I usually make it out 3 or 4 time a week. I'm currently workin on my B.S. in bio and start grad school next fall. I plan on spending the rest of my life devoted to herpatology, hopefully a professor in the subject someday, but thats still a few years away. If your ever in the general Baltimore area and need someone to go herping with lemme know, im always down for an outing.

Thanks for the bio, we have a few folks from the Baltimore area.

Where are you looking to go to grad school, steve?

Is this another Towson guy?

Right now I'm thinking University of Texas in Austin, they offer a program that I'm very intrested in. However, I'm not dead set on there. Towson is a thought, but right now there not accepting grad student into any biology programs that would intrest me. Maybe things will change in the next year, towson would be the cheapest place for me to go.