Field Herp Forum

Jefferson

Wow. This is a big loss for the herping community. I never really messaged him directly but read his excellent posts religiously. My deepest condolences to his friends and family.

Jefferson

Jefferson

No problem, and thank you for reading! Where are you based out of these days?

Jefferson

Wonderful post, thank you for sharing! I really like how majestic the NorPacs look that far north, and need to see one someday (I have been to the West Coast always in winter for salamanders), and feel your pain on the Klamath Black habitat. It's like they refuse to live anywhere without poison oak....

Jefferson

Companion YouTube video for post: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgqVaFudMA8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube] My friend Hayden recently relocated from an apartment in Nashville to a new house about an hour outside the city, which combined with a desire to see my girlfriend's sister and my gr...

Jefferson

After the Arizona trip, all was quiet for a few weeks, and I did just a slight bit of herping on a short trip home to Michigan for Labor Day to see my parents and brother. We made one stop at a beachside metropark to walk the shores of Lake Erie and saw a few nostalgic childhood species that are abu...

Jefferson

Companion YT Video: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAbYf5_mgOk&feature=youtu.be[/youtube] As those of you who follow my posts know, I absolutely love Arizona. I like herping in lots of places, but the verb "love" is reserved for Southern Appalachia, California, and Arizona. L...

Jefferson

YouTube companion for post: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osx3rFambK8&feature=youtu.be[/youtube] After returning from Appalachia and Illinois, I settled back into the work and home routine for a few weeks but decided to try my hand at a Broad-banded Copperhead, the only venomous snake...

Jefferson

YouTube companion videos for this post: Missouri: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbYvb55uy2k&feature=youtu.be[/youtube] [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdZLke8IexA&feature=youtu.be[/youtube] [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCyr84cgKoI&feature=youtu.be[/youtube...

Jefferson

Great stuff! Even though they are not rare in South Florida, I love Scarlet Snakes. Living in the Midwest and Virginia my whole life, I have only ever seen one on a fluke. Great Diamondback too!

Jefferson

Thanks man!

Jefferson

I know this one has been dormant except the last post for a while, but on the topic of Topeka/KS/Heartland populations: there is a robust population of Italian Wall Lizards here in SW Missouri, in downtown Joplin, near the Joplin First Church on 4th Street. I went for a morning walk there a few June...

Jefferson

Nice stuff! That coffee snake is nice, and I am glad you got it after several attempts. Apt name for a Central American species....

Jefferson

YouTube companion videos for this post (2): 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnQvmP7X-DA&feature=youtu.be 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydB3xkBEVmE&t=45s When a young man asked legendary newspaper editor Horace Greeley in the 1800s what he should do with his life, Greeley replied, &qu...

Jefferson

Hey everyone! Since my trip to Texas last November, the main herping has consisted of a 4-day weekend to California that I will post about separately, but also some cool day-outings around here in the Missouri and NW Arkansas Ozarks. Late last November, I closed up the year in salamander herping wit...

Jefferson

I agree wholeheartedly. Any idea how to do it?

Jefferson

Not a problem; good luck down there!
Jefferson

Jefferson

No worries! Mid-March is really, really early for most stuff in Appalachia in my experience. You get some early-season low-elevation Plethodon out, like P. hoffmani in Virginia/WV and Zigzags anywhere (they can even be found in January), and of course streams will have the more common desmogs in the...

Jefferson

What days is your spring break?

Jefferson

Thanks for the input guys! It's very helpful. What I am gathering is that for San Gabriels, I should hope for a rain coincides with my flight out there, and if not within a few days, look for snakes instead at lower elevation or see the Rose Bowl or something rather than waste the effort.

Jefferson

Please read Part 1 (Texas) for full context: https://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25970 Motoring in from Texas, we crossed into Louisiana just before dusk, across the mighty Sabine River and deep into the seemingly endless pines and flooded fields off I-10 in the heart of Cajun count...

Jefferson

Thanks man!

Jefferson

Why do the best trips always start disastrously, the same way the best investment cycles start with horrifying corrections? For at least the past four years, that has been an ironclad rule on my major trips: the larger the calamity to start the vacation, the more stupendous the rest of the trip. So,...

Jefferson

Thank you guys much! That Oregon Slender probably was the proudest lifer of the trip, and unexpectedly beautiful for a Batrachoseps as well. Oregon may not have as many salamander species as California, North Carolina, or Tennessee, but most of the ones it does have are gorgeous, from the newts to t...

Jefferson

Thanks much! I do like the old days of FHF, and reading big narratives like this instead of short blurbs with photos today. I do these partly to leave a complete, un-fragmented record of the trips for myself as much as anything, to give myself a narrative to look back at in 15 years and remember the...

Jefferson

Upon re-reading this, let me make it clear that by "standard Vegas stuff," I don't mean that the Vegas leg of the trip was uneventful or just the normal touristy experience--Hayden and his associates made it a blast, and we ventured into the real Vegas off the popular touristy joints on th...

Jefferson

Sometimes the unexpected trips are the best ones. Until early October this year, I thought that the first week of November would see me in the Florida Panhandle, filming an episode for my environmental economics series with some Sunshine State researchers on Frosted Flatwoods Salamanders, but hurric...

Jefferson

For those of you who also want to watch the accompanying YT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdhEeDmiXPg&feature=youtu.be In the classic 1964 apocalypse-comedy-thriller Dr. Strangelove (or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), the Russian nuclear scientist tells Peter Sellers...

Jefferson

Good stuff!!

Jefferson

Hey everyone! I am still working on getting a few trip narratives written in the next few weeks in addition to the back-logged stuff I got our in November, but am thinking about a forward-looking topic here. First, I will likely be out in SoCal doing some salamander searching in mid-February (Slende...

Jefferson

Also, did you find that Junaluska in Tennessee or NC? From what I understand, the NC populations are much declined and it is very rare to find those on the Tar Heel side of the Appalachians anymore.

Jefferson

Thanks for posting! These are some killer photos, particularly the P. shermani, the Green, and the Many-lined. Making me miss North Carolina!!

Jefferson

Apologies for two photo link misfires on that original post (put in the Streambed picture a second time instead of the Western Grotto, and same with the Rainbow Earless duplicate instead of the second Gila). Actual photos: Actual Western Grotto Salamander from Kansas: https://www.naherp.com/vouchers...

Jefferson

A continuation of my July 2021-January 2022 post with minimal narrative but documentation of highlight finds from the long period (July 2021 until now) that I got way behind on. In early spring, I ventured south into the Piney woods of North Louisiana and Arkansas to try to see a pair of highly-cove...

Jefferson

For some reason the attachments I tried to place in-line are just all showing up at the end of the post (about 1/3 of the pics), but I trust you guys can match the species with the pictures at the end without issue. 'Tis a herping forum, after all. Cheers,
Jefferson

Jefferson

Some very old photos that I got behind on posting here. I will not be doing huge trip write-ups like I normally do, but will be posting a brief summary and pics from this period and then from early 2022 to October of that year, where I pick up the narrative in a previous post. In early August of 202...

Jefferson

For those of you who prefer to just watch the YT video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6iw3ruMY3M&t=5s After returning from the Wild East (a MASSIVE herping trip in mid-May with my brother covering Texas, the Gulf, and Appalachia that I have yet to post an account for yet) to the prairies of S...

Jefferson

In October and November 2022, I got a few nice opportunities to do some light herping with family, with the first instance a short outing to a series of caves and springs in urban surroundings just across the border into Northwest Arkansas, where I can usually find at least two of the three of Cave,...

Jefferson

Hey all, I am working on getting some old trip narratives ready to post with pics here to FHF, since it has been forever (since mid-2021) since I have posted on here, but I have also been thinking about putting my herp records on more than one database--continuing to use naherp but also utilizing iN...

Jefferson

That is really cool that you once found a gracile in August. Thanks for the tips on seasonality, and again, great post!

Jefferson

Great post! Makes me nostalgic for my two visits to the Calfiornia coast for sallies (February '19 and April '22--still have to post the 2022 one). I am just curious: what time of year did you see all those gracile at Van Damme? I went in April and found a thousand Slenders, some Wandering, Ensatina...

Jefferson

What a post man, and from a YT herping legend! I love that part of the South where Piedmont and Appalachians hit the Coastal Plain--so much unique habitat and weird species assemblage mixing in that zone--you are making me miss the Southeast with this and your YT content--wish I could spend more tha...

Jefferson

Hey Jeff! The time-out is killer.... As for your comments, I'm glad that someone enjoys my narration style, and that the prose evoked some fond old memories (and un-fond, as in the Natchitoches motel)! The entire Rumors album is masterly, but somehow I had never heard "You Make Loving Fun"...

Jefferson

Wow, it is amazing how fast time since I last posted on the forum slips away. Since last July, Bethany and I have had some great herping adventures, and I think it’s time to post some pictures and stories before the amount of unposted material becomes absolutely insurmountable. I’ve seen many of you...

Jefferson

This one was larger than I expected, probably somewhere in the 20-25" range. He was roughly twice as long as my shoes from snout to rattle, and I have large feet. My first thought when we saw him stretched out across the road was, "That's about 6" too big to be a Pigmy--here comes my ...

Jefferson

Jimi, Thank you for the words of encouragement on our "home road" efforts and general advice on the road-cruising schedule. I agree that it's probably not as applicable to Central KS as I originally thought, but sometimes a placebo effect or talisman-type ritual puts the mind at ease when ...

Jefferson

We've actually only seen Pigs west of the Mississippi so far. Last August 15, we saw two Pigs and a DOR Copperhead in one night on a road only about a 20-minute drive from our front door but didn't have time to re-visit in Sept. last year. Now, we've been using that road since about July 20 to just ...

Jefferson

Thanks for the replies guys! Jimi, I'm glad you enjoy our posts on the forum (and videos? If not, you should check them out), and yes, we're hitting herping hard early in our lives in anticipation of slowing down the pace when we have kids--we'll still herp, but nowhere near the intensity, duration,...

Jefferson

Good afternoon everyone, Bethany and I have some locales nailed down for Long-nosed snake, Prairie Rattler, W. Massasauga, Great Plains Toad, Red-spotted Toad, Glass Lizard, and Horned Lizard in West-central Kansas, along with Great Plains skink and Lined snake a little further east in the Flint Hil...

Jefferson

They are, aren't they?! Looking for them is so different from looking for reptiles.

Jefferson

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy the writing and the pictures of our herping thus far this year. We're probably going to cruise for Sisturus tonight in the Ozarks, so here's to hoping! Also, thank you for pointing out my typo on that "Smooth" green snake--I have Michigan on the brain, where we'l...

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