|
SOUTHEAST
|
March 2006
|
|
Click on any
photo to see a larger version
|
|
2 of 4
|
|
|
Leaving Berkeley
behind in South Carolina,
we drove straight to the Florida Panhandle where we met up with Pierson and
his girlfriend Kim. Like any good herp
hosts, they greeted us with a snake, a lovely, light brown Gray Rat that we
returned to its home in a cabbage palm hammock.
|
|
|
|
|
Gray
Rat Snake
Elaphe
obsoleta spiloides
|
As one snake is released, another shows up
in practically the same spot, something small gliding over a palm frond.
|
|
|
Blue-Striped
Garter Snake (juvenile)
Thamnophis
sirtalis similis
|
Returning to the rough dirt roads that transect the woods, Pierson
dashes from the car to intercept this Moccasin that almost got away.
|
|
|
|
Florida Water Moccasin
Agkistrodon
piscivorous conanti
|
Back on a paved road, we come across a female Soft-Shell who has hauled
herself out of the water, looking for a place to lay eggs. We shoo her off the street and back into a
nearby pond. For three days I’m
haunted by the question, Where have I seen that face before?
|
|
|
|
Florida Soft-Shell Turtle
Apalone
ferox
|
Ron, just for the hell of it, decides he wants a Racer a day, kind of
like taking vitamins. On Day One he
found the first (although it slipped through his fingers). Day Two was the juvie Coachwhip, which we decided
to count as an upgraded Racer. On Day
Three, the ever-accommodating Pierson spots and grabs our third.
|
|
|
|
Southern Black Racer
Coluber constrictor priapus
|
Later we come to an old storage shelter in an oak
hammock where I find my first Gray Rat Snake, a nice large adult.
Pierson also finds a younger one in the same area.
We then switch habitats to look for Scarlet Kings
in the pines.
We were not disappointed:
|
|
|
|
Scarlet Kingsnake
Lampropeltis triangulum
elapsoides
|
That day produced one more lifer for me and Ron, a
Glossy Crayfish Snake found near the water.
|
|
|
Glossy Crayfish Snake
Regina rigida
|
|
