Field Herp Forum

mark buck

Richard, Glad to hear you've been keeping up with your falconry. Yea that Boa from the Piute's was around 10" in length, so most likely not in reproductive condition yet. That's nice that you've been able to see a few snake species locally! I haven't had a chance to make any searches yet this y...

mark buck

Haha yes! Mr. Schoenig out from the woodwork to post. 9/10 juveniles definitely seemed strange to me and I would guess that is not a normal ratio. I hate to say it but I think with the ongoing drought a lot of adult snakes are way less surface active. Staying underground doing their best to retain m...

mark buck

Jeff, So glad you enjoyed the post! Happy I could take you on a trip down memory lane. Although un-related to species distribution… California’s diverse geography is without a doubt one of my favorite features of our home state. On just about any given day of the year, there is somewhere you can hik...

mark buck

Well I'm back (: In June of last year I put together a post highlighting a fantastic trip to Oregon where a nice assortment of Reptiles were seen thanks to my good friend Richard Hoyer. In that narrative I promised to follow up with another post highlighting a few days in the month of May, a "P...

mark buck

mark buck

brad123, Thank you! We definitely scored... thrilled you enjoyed the post! Porter, Have you watched these videos? If not I highly recommend you do so. I first checked them out a few years ago but then also re-watched them as a "refresher" of sorts right before my trip ha ha. https://youtu....

mark buck

Great post Zeev. I will always have a soft spot for the desert lizards! They were my original obsession and introduction into field herping here in CA. I especially enjoyed all the Chuckwalla action and beautiful GB Collared. Also finding the Long nosed snake out cruising in the daytime... very cool!

mark buck

Porter, Glad you liked the post. Richard is a good friend, always a pleasure getting out in the field with him! Jeff, Your certainly right I probably should have included some details about that in this post. We came across quite a few Boas that were recaptures dating back many years. Any "new&...

mark buck

Well it has been some time since I put together an elaborate post for this forum, glad to be back. Looks like there's been a small flurry of recent activity on here. Makes me happy to see people contributing quality photos and stories. Despite continuing drought conditions here in the west, the mont...

mark buck

photo upload test

mark buck

photo upload test

mark buck

And with a white belly!!

Great find Brad and welcome to the forum. A few years from now when you have some more Zonata finds under your belt your gonna look back and realize how special that snake was. Very uncommon to have that much white on the head.

Thanks for sharing with us here on FHF!

mark buck

Enjoyed the narrative and great photograph. Thanks for sharing!

mark buck

Certainly looks like a Bullsnake (P. c. sayi) to me.

Nice snake!

mark buck

Richard: Sounds like a nice start to the year for you. Crazy to think 57 degrees is enough to get an adult Boa up and moving in January, I'm assuming he was under tin. Fascinating little serpents either way. My field season started a few weeks back on January 6th in Western Riverside Co. Temps had b...

mark buck

Thanks for the report Richard. I can picture the Sharp Tails shining in that Oregon sun :) Hope you're able to turn up more Charina/Contia between rainstorms in the coming months. Supposed to be a wet winter for you guys up in the PNW. We still need a lot more in the way of rain down here in Central...

mark buck

Nice post Zeev! Always cool to see somebody put something together.

The "yellowed out" kingsnake from June is probably my favorite...

mark buck

Richard are you still accepting new students for your Sfcb-101 course??? I need a refresher to prepare for the upcoming season of field work :) @ rms1111 Listen carefully to any advice/insights Richard gives you! Mr. Hoyer is a treasure trove of useful information. Rattlesnakes will come easy for yo...

mark buck

Great thread. That last Giant garter in Elliot's post is insane! And that first Red-Sided of Owen's is nothing to poke a stick at either. I wish I had a bunch of gnarly Garter snake pics to contribute but really these two are the only ones that come to mind... This thick and healthy Mountain Garter ...

mark buck

To put it simply... yes, its unethical to flip through someone's board-line. That's probably not the answer you wanted to hear but I'm just being honest. That said, almost nothing in field herping is black and white... hence all the long replies above, and the one your about to get haha. I'm not gon...

mark buck

Richard,

What kind of Garter snakes were you turning up?

Also I sent you an email regarding your trip down here in March.

-Mark

mark buck

Glad to hear you've been having some success up there Richard, thanks for sharing. And congrats on hitting 50 consecutive years... I love your dedication! John Lauermann and I turned up a few Rosy Boas (aka the wrong boa LOL) earlier this week down in Southern Calif. Temperatures were much higher du...

mark buck

Gotta love the variability of those Northwestern garters... I have to disagree with your opinion of Valley garters (fitchi) though, they're actually my favorite! I did notice a minor mistake in your write-up, you have the latin names for Valley garters and CA red-sided swapped, fitchi = valley and i...

mark buck

Last spring while hunting Zonata in the central Sierra my dad turned up a Rubber at roughly 3,600'... I thought this seemed kinda low, but then again I am no expert on the range. There's others on this forum that could give you a much better answer... I would imagine they exist at lower elevations t...

mark buck

mark buck

Fantastic report Richard. Thanks for sharing.

Happy holidays, hope to do some hunting with you next year

mark buck

the first sidewinder I ever found was coiled up under a boulder mid day in CA's low desert...
cloudy days seem to work best

*tried to upload a pic but I guess my picture files are too large, and now TinyPic is belly up... that's nice...

also looks like you've gotten some great responses/pictures

mark buck

@ blacktara I think 2017 was the last year Dave did this, floodwaters moved all his boards around and in a way destroyed the survey. I can't imagine how bad the floods were last winter, a spot I had been hunting in spring 2018 was 6 feet underwater this year... That said it really is a shame, Dave h...

mark buck

Outstanding.

I have a lot of respect for species that adapt to survive in disturbed/changing habitat, that's probably why I like Giant garters so much... living in nasty rice field canals and chowing down on invasive bullfrogs, they really are badass snakes...

great video

mark buck

Nice one!

mark buck

Thanks, one of my favorite finds of the year so far. Seems like luck definitely plays a part in finding kingsnake morphs. I only spent 3 days hunting within delta range this year and managed to find one so you just never know. Sounds like you have a nice sample size of kings from that area, I'm sure...

mark buck

Wow congrats, that's a beautiful snake

I found one this year as well...

Doesn't get much better than a nice black bellied king!

mark buck

@ Brian Hubbs - Thanks Brian, it was a lot of fun haha

@ r.edwards - Thanks, glad you enjoyed it

@ SurfinHerp - Thanks Jeff! I really liked those finds too.

@ ricrabt - Thanks John. That Boa was so orange...

mark buck

Been a while since I last posted but figured I should put up some highlights from an awesome year. The 2016/2017 winter in California was one of the wettest on record, surpassing the 1982/1983 El Nino rain totals in many parts of the state. All this precipitation made 2017 an epic year for snake hun...

mark buck

Nice work dudes

mark buck

Nice finds!

Keep it up

mark buck

Great post dude!

Oreganus are definitely my favorite species of rattlesnake,
so variable in pattern/color and they hang out in some awesome habitat

mark buck

Posts like this are why I joined this forum...

Awesome stuff

mark buck

Amazing finds and photographs!

Glad to see you made the most of the epic conditions we had in 2017.

That 2nd Sidewinder shot really stood out to me, should definitely be published

mark buck

Love those faded looking desert boas, great post.

mark buck

There's nothing to see at WW anyway, don't bother cruising there.

mark buck

Was there monday and the fire closure is now in effect.

mark buck

If chapters are going to exist on FHF now, they should be FHF Chapters so I can support them properly. I think this route may be the best way to go. I really like the idea of NAFHA and it's advocation for citizen science/conservation, and would hate to see it disolve... That being said, it's future...

mark buck

Thanks for the info and additional pic Porter

Went digging to find a shot from the last time I had a Collared in hand,
sure enough you can see a small cluster of orange mites in the middle of his collar...

mark buck

Yep I'm with rpecora on this one. After taking a better look at your picture, it looks like a patternless Red Spotted Toad. They also are somewhat variable in appearance and sometimes lack the bright red spots. From what I've read there were 1 or 2 historical records of Arroyos at Whitewater but the...

mark buck

Wow, you've outdone yourself with this one Lou!

Fantastic video and amazing find.

mark buck

Nice finds.

I think your Toad is actually just a Western Toad (Anaxyrus boreas),
they can vary quite a bit in coloration/pattern.

Hopefully someones corrects me if I'm wrong about the Toad,
if that is in fact an Arroyo, that would be a very good find for that area.

mark buck

Wow great pictures man.

The first Glossy shot is my favorite, also the habitat pics are really nice too

mark buck

Looks like a nice day

mark buck

SICCCKKKK finds....

Really cool that you saw 5 Coast Horned lizards in JT,
I heard that the drought was tough on the populations out there.

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