Field Herping Texas (On going)

[reptileexperts]

Ok, I wanted to sit down and start an on going thread for my Texas herping as I finish out this season before the winter hits. My girlfriend from Germany flew in Friday and we have been hitting it hard in the field to try and get her list started right for the states. While we have a total of 6 speices (5 alive, 1 DOR), I only have one photo ready to post, so I will have to add to this later. But for now, here is the first shot of the start for this big trip of herping for the next 2 weeks - from the field, on a studio set up - my favorite local hot, Southern Copperhead


Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix: Canon 1D Mark III, Canon 100mm F2.8 USM Macro, Canon 580exII diffused and fired wirelessly.

Cheers,

[reptileexperts]

It's been one crazy past 2 weeks! But I just returned from traveling across the state of Texas, and down into Mexico a little bit. Overall, herping was not the greatest. . . After our success with the Copperheads, we went out to the marsh side of East Texas and turned up the normal suspects - Gulf Coast Ribbon Snake, Plain-bellied Water Snake, 1 DOR Nerodia clarkii clarkii, Couple Marsh Brown Snakes,



And about 7 Hatchling - yearling Western Cottonmouths



And one more studio shot of the Copperhead . . .



Next stop in the journey was West Texas, with its mountains, Rattlesnakes, and LONG drives, we headed west . ..

[reptileexperts]

In west Texas, the goal was to walk cut outs with our vest on during the night, and cruise where and when we could. We were going to do hiking during the days where the nights were too cold. Our first night was far too tiring to head out, and hoping that the rest of the trip would bring warm nights, we decided to stay in, not before heading out just for a bit at sunset, long enough to come across a basking Sonoran Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer affinis)



this was followed by what can only be described as a horrible turn of events however, the next morning temperatures dropped well below what you could expect for finding animals, so that night was spent looking at stars after a day of driving around and looking for basking lizards. . .



The rest of the trip was filled with some nice scenory (working on landscape images still), and long days of just hiking around the ranches, with the occassional night cruising. On Sunday night, we did have the unfortunate pleasure of finding a Great-horned Owl, stunned and hit on the road. We were able to pick it up with little fight, and the next morning, brought it to a local game warden who proceeded to take it to a local rehabber on our behalf. . .



On tuesday, the temperatures were finally above 90 F during the day, so roads were warm enough for activity to be brought about. We headed down to Mexico for the afternoon, and started our drive back to the ranch from Presido, Texas, just before sunset. Finally the activity began as we encountered our first rattlesnake, and arguably the hardest rattlesnake in Texas to find - and also the deadliest snake in the U.S., Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus


The Mojave / Western Diamondback can sometimes be variable enough that they are hard to distinguish, but the tail tell sign is simply the banding. Mojave have a wider white band, than black band on the tail, where as C. atrox has even banding. Notice the white bands are about twice the size as the blacks.


I probably took over 500 images of just this one snake in the field studio, and in the actual field. This was my first and only Mojave, and it was a great experience, but WOW was he aggressive!

About 5 miles up the road, we encountered another large rattlesnake basking on the shoulder, we pulled over to photograph the snake, but an unsuspecting vehical passed us before we could get out and ran directly over the snakes head We watched as the snake fought for life, and slowly slithered off into the canyon . . . my lifer, and again only, Black-tailed Rattlesnake, Crotalus molossus,




This particular snake had a near perfect rattle, such a crying shame to watch such events.

The next day we left West Texas, and made the long 12 hour drive home over the course of two days, and my better half caught her flight back to Germany early this morning. It was an incredible trip and I still have loads more images to share, while the herps were in low numbers due to the low temperatures, spirits were high and birding was always around. . .


Canyon Towhee, on the last evening from the ranch.

[reptileexperts]

Couple more hot shots, the Southern Copperhead and Western Cottonmouth, right now my "Mojave" Rattlesnake, should be Crotalus atrox, the locales on River Road, in west Texas, have inconsistant tail markings with atrox locale anywhere else. This gives false positive for Mojave. A scale count preformed from photographs this afternoon confirmed.





Cheers,

[Bowlshot]

Wow that owls face is awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free

[reptileexperts]

While in west texas a couple weeks ago, we did come across a couple male turantulas crossing the road, while there are 14 T-species found within the state of Texas, and 3 possible in West texas I am not comfortable pinning the ID to any one species on this particule guy . . .


and back to Western Diamondback fun, I had a lot of image opportunities with this snake, and many many shots that I have not had the time to put out there - I have been quite busy with many projects with the reptiles at home, and getting ready to leave the coutnry again this coming weekend, fly out to Berlin, Germany on Friday. . .

will continue updating as I can, should be a nice new post from the tropics in about 6 weeks. Fly out to Ecuador again, 4 weeks from Friday. . . it's a big world but someone has to travel it ;-)

[gsarchie]

Those are some amazing shots! Love the two rattlesnakes, it is a shame what happened to the blacktailed! That was a gorgeous animal indeed. You have a gift with the camera, my friend! Thanks for sharing, I hope that you post some more photos early next spring.

[reptileexperts]

Thanks!
During the winter I use my camera on birds, and captive snakes. But next spring for sure will be filled with more snakes. I'll be down in costa rica in february potentially. Have not decided on the final destination yet. I have some updated retic shots, but need to wait till i am back in the states to start a new update post finally. My camera and i are currently located in Berlin, Germany
Www.pbase.com/codyconway/berlin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk