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 grandma in Atlanta and a powerful fall rain system brewing for Florida, assured that a trip to the Southeast this November was inevitable. The trip started on a Friday night as we coasted east through the Missouri Ozarks, down through Cario, Illinois, and into the "Jackson Purchase" counties of far western Kentucky. By the time we got to Hayden's house in Middle Tennessee, we were famished and had some take-out Mexican mixed with conversation on US foreign policy, the extent and influence of witchcraft and witch trials in early US history, and so forth. I joked that perhaps the talk about Puritan-era witch trials would break my Tennessee Cave Salamander curse the next day. It did.
The drive to this cave was beautiful, taking us past Sewanee and some very pretty hill country in Northeast Alabama, although I was vaguely uncertain if the fact that Muzzleloader season had started in Alabama would mean the cave was inaccessible. Upon parking and walking to the trail off the road, there was a sign imploring cave visitors to call John, the landowner, to check access. Shockingly, I had service. A man with a thick Alabama twang answered and told us how to get to the cave. It was not closed yet, as the cave only closed once general rifle season started that next weekend. Phew.
Climbing down into the cave was relatively easy, although the mud slides once inside were daunting, and on descending the first one, I thought I saw a Tennessee Cave Salamander larvae. I took extensive dark, blurry video and pictures. It ended up being just a twig on closer inspection that required me to contort myself.....
But on the second attempt along the cave stream (which was absolutely glass-clear), I got a huge, obvious Pale Tennessee Cave Salamander about 400 yards back into the cavern.
Pale Tennessee Cave Salamander, Northeast Alabama
The eyes looked unlike any other salamander I have seen, and it was strange seeing a cave salamander that was obviously troglodytic but with the body shape and contours of a Gyrinophilus. On the way out, I saw a few large cave crayfish and got video of one doing an odd motion with his antennae, but did not get a still shot. After a visit to Lookout Mountain (which now apparently costs money to visit, even just to see the cannons on the summit, not even Rock City or Ruby Falls), we went to see my grandma in the Atlanta suburbs and had a great time.
The next morning, we did only about 15 minutes of herping before finding my first metro-Atlanta herp, a Seal Salamander. According to recent taxonomic splits, this is now the "Talladega Seal" Salamander. Found in a sandy-bottomed Piedmont stream.
"Talladega" Seal Salamander, DeKalb County, Georgia
After some Cookout (from a drive-thru staff with some serious attitude!), I headed for Florida, striking out at a dipnetting spot for Waterdogs along the way, as the leaf packs had not coalesced. My Airbnb host in the Panhandle that night used to work for FWC and knew Peter Kleinhenz. What are the chances? The Airbnb, incidentally, was peak Florida. Flamingoes and manatees on the walls, seashell lights on the nightstand, the works. Only a life-size cut out of Tom Petty was missing.
The next morning started herpetologically slow but exciting nonetheless. I got up early to see if there were any manatees in the springs at Wakulla, and sure enough, I saw my first sea cows!!
Manatee Calf, Wakulla Springs, Florida
Manatee Mother, Wakulla Springs, Florida
After trying for River Frogs in the swamps of ANF and getting only leopard and pig frogs, I headed to a city park in Tallahassee where getting hit by a frisbee thrown by an FSU student is a much bigger danger than hogs and Cottonmouths. There were many exotic birds on shore, but after about fifteen minutes, I saw my quarry out in the middle of the lake and got an okay picture with my long lens. Lifer Florida Softshell Turtles:
Florida Softshell Turtles, Tallahassee, Florida
The rest of the day was uneventful cruising and hanging out at the Airbnb, looking back through my manatee and turtle pictures and video. The next night, after an unsuccessful morning cruise and another swing and a miss on waterdogs (for the same reason--not enough leaves yet), a nice lunch at Red's Pirate Cove in Eastpointe, FL (plays Tom Petty radio constantly and serves gator meat, which I got purely for the irony and to say I tried it), and a random Ribbon Snake midday, a big rainstorm blew in. Although I didn't cruise the Flatwoods Salamander I hoped for, these gorgeous and rare frogs made up for it!!
Brown Ornate Chorus Frog, Apalachicola NF
Green Ornate Chorus Frog, Apalachicola NF
I also wanted to photograph a Barking Treefrog on the road (my first since 2019), but it jumped off immediately as I got out. There were also plenty of leopard, cricket, Garter/Ribbon Snakes, and Southern Toads out in the torrential downpour. Eventually I got tired of getting soaked to ID each frog and headed to the motel content with the Ornate Chorus Frogs and convinced that with the rain subsiding, the window to see Flatwoods Salamanders had passed. There was something nostalgic for my early childhood in seeing a ton of frogs and nothing else of note, and I greatly enjoyed that night's cruise.
The next day, I slept in and did some push-ups and sit-ups at my (rather seedy) motel in the Panhandle before going out to do some turtling within a close range, picking up a cool little lifer in the process near the Florida/Georgia border.
Florida Redbelly Turtle, Chipola River, Florida
Barbour's Map Turtle, Far North Florida
That afternoon, a friend from further east in Florida came in, and we started with a little cypress dome swamp, where we found my lifer Brown Watersnake in uncharacteristic habitat and some Dwarf Salamanders that escaped into the muck and leaf litter.
Brown Watersnake, Florida Panhandle
That night, I found perhaps the rarest salamander I have seen since I began salamander hunting in earnest in 2009:
Georgia Blind Salamander, Florida
There were actually three in the cave pool we examined, along with some Dougherty Plain Blind Crayfish, although only one salamander was close enough to get a decent picture. I am very grateful to have had the assistance of a Florida native who knew how to get this species relatively safely and without going through SCUBA certification for cave diving in my eventual retirement!
The next morning, not really caring too much what happened the rest of the trip, we headed east, almost to the Atlantic Ocean, to try some seeps that my friend had previously seen muddies in. We got a juvenile Amphiuma and four Rusty Muds. I saw an adult, although it darted into the mud and moss before I could caress it into the dipnet, although I did thankfully catch one larvae, pictured below. After another netting spot where we saw little, we held a bonfire and BS session to commemorate the trip. It was a great way to punctuate the Florida leg of the trip.
Two-toed Amphiuma, Nassau County, Florida
Rusty Mud Salamander, Nassau County, Florida
From there, it was back through the pinelands of North Florida and South Georgia (with some Sonny's BBQ on the way, which is good but not competitive with Missouri-style or Texas-style BBQ) to visit Chloe and her sister in Atlanta (she had spent the week visiting) over some much-needed real, non-processed food.
On the way back to Missouri, we made a quick stop in the mountains of East Tennessee to try for Eurycea junaluska, but the leaves were very thick in the stream and made seeing salamanders difficult, although we did get a dozen Ocoee Salamanders and a Spotted Dusky to round out the trip, and Appalachian streams are always pretty to visit regardless of the herp haul.
Happy herping everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving! Here's hoping I have more material to post come mid-2025!!