Spring in TX & Appalachians

[DutchHerp]

Hi,

This spring has not been very productive so far, apart from my first trip to the Smoky Mountains and my introduction to many new salamanders. Flipping, for me at least, has yielded very low results so far. I wonder if it has to do with last year’s horrible drought? The next photos are from around Houston, a few trips to the coast, the Smoky Mountains Trip, and some road cruising north of Houston.

First off, this Storeria dekayi texana from my neighborhood. I rarely see these outside of my neighborhood, and I didn’t have any photos yet.



Next a Pantherophis obsoletus lindheimeri from a reservoir by my house. I saw several there this year, and I hadn’t seen them there previously.



We flipped this nice Agkistrodon c. contortrix with John Williams and Tom Sinclair.



I flipped this Lampropeltis getula holbrooki on the coast in early April.



Along with a Crotalus atrox right on the beach that I stepped on while walking to a large board pile.



Later in May I made a trip to Chambers county with Brandon Bowers. We drove all day to scout the county and picked up some common stuff in the form of roadkill.

We did, however, find this county record Pseudemys concinna metteri.





We found several DOR snakes and turtles, and while scouting a hyacinth filled canal, Brandon spotted an Amphiuma tridactylum that got away.

Another DOR Lampropletis getula holbrooki.



I made two more trips down to Chambers county, and even though they were still subpar, I found some interesting stuff.

Several Coluber constrictor flaviventris, which I hadn’t seen in this area. Sorry for the handling shot, it obviously wouldn’t sit still.



A Chelydra serpentina.



A Terrapene carolina that would not open up.



We had been cruising for about four hours one morning without any snakes, until we found two AOR and two DOR Nerodia c. clarkii in twenty minutes. There were also lots of nighthawks sitting on the road and several rails out and about. We think the abundance of nighthawks during daylight hours was due to a recent fallout.





I went road cruising with Brandon to look for corn snakes. The most disturbing find was a Crotalus horridus skeleton in a state park next to a trail by a rock pile; obviously stoned to death by the vicious rednecks that patrol the area. The other four live snakes that we saw either got off the road, or were smashed to the pavement......

These Lampropeltis getula holbrooki and Pantherophis guttatus slowinskii (lifer) were already dead before we got there.



I saved the best for last: an absolutely awesome family trip to the Smoky Mountains. Usually these family trips are herp-free, but this was a great experience to go salamandering, which I’ve only been doing for a few months. All of these animals were lifers.

All the streams we looked through had Desmognathus in them, and many had other species as well. The first stream I looked in had four salamanders in the same square meter, of three different species, one of them a major target. There were Desmognathus, Eurycea wilderae, and Gyrinophilus p. porphyriticus, though they were not photographed.

This Pseudotriton ruber was found under a small log far away from water.



This Carphophis a. amoenus was one of two snakes on the trip.



I ended up getting one day to specifically herp. We went to Indian Gap, a herping mecca where several salamanders were originally described from.

Desmognathus santeetlah were common mountain streams.





Desmognathus imitator mimics the sticky Plethodon jordani, an salamander endemic to the park and my main target for the day. They don’t always have the orange cheeks.



This melanistic Desmognathus has not been identified yet.



Eurycea wilderae were common and are sometimes found in the red-sided morph.





It took me four hours to find my first Plethodon jordani, and when we got back to the parking lot I found one within five minutes on two different days.



We spent a few hours on rainy day in the Pisgah NF, where we found some cool sallies as well.

Unidentified Desmognathus.





Gyrinophilus p. porphyriticus were seen, two in larval form and one adult that was not photographed due to the rain. I had been wanting to see more of these since my initial encounter on the first day.



Desmognathus (fuscus) conanti were common throughout the trip, though this one was my favorite photograph.



One of my main targets was Desmognathus quadramaculatus; even though I had probably seen them before, I had never positively identified one from the hundreds of other Desmognathus. We flipped a rock under which was an individual that must have been 8”, though it got away. I did photograph a smaller one.



That’s been about it for my spring herping so far.

Later, Matt

[GoFride]

Wow great pics - thanks!

[musicalKeyes]

lovely pictures! looking for salamanders is my favorite, sometimes it's a trip and a half. I can't count the number of times that's happened to me, searching for hours and hours and then a minute from the parking lot you find 10

[SNIKTTIME]

Very nice shots. I find it so interesting how the same animal found in different part of the country can look so different.

[NotaMallard]

Wow. Oh, lord, those are all just... amazing. Thank you so much for sharing.

[Jason Bowden]

Awesome herping pics! Love the salamanders!

[joepythons]

Those are some very nice pics