Houston, Texas herping (February 1)
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I got to meet up with Andy (snakeguy8 , Clint (clint), and Scott (sepultura4ever)
this weekend when I visited Houston. Temperatures were great so we all went
out to see what we could turn up. My personal goals were finding a southern
copperhead, speckled and praire kingsnake, and maybe a coral snake. Didn't
find those, but here's some pics of what we did find:
First finds were plenty of ground skinks (Scincella lateralis) and some
5-lined skinks (Eumeces fasciatus). Here's a larger one we found (I was hoping
to find a juvenile with the blue tail and all):
After flipping many skinks in a forest, we came out near a creek and started
flipping boards and whatever else we could find. All of a sudden, an Eastern
hognose snake (Heterodon platyrhinos) shoots out from under Andy's shoe. You
could tell he hadn't eaten as he was rather skinny.
Here's a closer view of his head (sorry it's not in focus!)
After finding the hognose snake, Andy and Clint took off on another trail
and me and Scott walked along the forest edge. I got to one spot and could
hear a frog calling....er, crying for help. I couldn't pinpoint the location
right away as it was in a thicket of bushes, brush, thorns, etc. This is what
I saw...see if you can see it:
A little closer revealed a western ribbon snake (Thamnophis proximus proximus)
chowing down on a leopard frog.
You can't tell from the picture (I didn't want to disturb his meal and regurge
after his hard work), but he ate the frog backwards and the frogs head was
still sticking out of the snake's mouth....and still chirping, crying, whatever
you want to call it.
After finding many more skinks, we started walking along the creek. Scott
scared off a rather large diamondback water snake (Nerodia rhombifer) into
the water and after spotting it in the water, jumped in and grabbed him (or
should I say the water snake grabbed Scott?!)
Another pic of this big diamondback water snake:
After taking pics and letting it go, we all started flipping more debris
and rocks near the creek. We all passed one nice sized rock, but Andy didn't
miss it. He lifted it up and found this pretty little blotched water snake
(Nerodia erythrogaster transversa). Can't tell from this pic, but it had very
nice orange tint on him.
Around the same time, Scott turned up this little Texas brown snake (Storeria
dekayi texana):
Found 5 snakes, all different species, which was good for me. Hopefully
next time I'll be able to duplicate my success and also find other species.
Pics will be included....
Andy, Scott, and Clint...it was nice meeting you and I'll give you all a
call next time I'm down.
