It was the second day of March back in 2008, and a warm front was roaring up out of the south, bringing scudding clouds and rain. Up to that point, spring had not put in much of an appearance, with temperatures sometimes twenty degrees colder than normal. With this dramatic change in the weather, here at last was a window of opportunity to go look for a little frog that spends much of its life tucked out of sight. The winds were strong enough that I burned almost an extra quarter tank of gas while driving down to the bottom of Illinois. Close to sunset, I met up with Scott Albert and Mike Steffen at a local gas station. Scott…
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Our expedition clients have spent the last three nights hiking the trails around the field station here in the Peruvian rainforest. Those nights have been very productive, in terms of herps and other critters seen and experienced. But long hikes in the heat and humidity take their toll, and afterwards, when folks close their eyes for sleep, the afterimages of waving flashlight beams play against the back of their eyelids. It’s time to change things up – time to take a night off, give tired eyes and legs a rest. Time for the Boa Boat. The sign-up sheet is over by the icebox, and we leave a half hour after dark. Wear long sleeves, bring your bug spray and rain…
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This past June I drove out to New Jersey with one firm goal in mind – record an interview with Robert Zappalorti, the founder and executive director of Herpetological Associates, Inc. It all came together; Bob is an interesting person to talk to, with decades of experiences, and a gracious host as well. The resulting recording became Episode 118: Pinesnakes, Bog Turtles and more with Bob Zappalorti. I met with Bob at the HA headquarters in Pemberton, New Jersey, and we had an hour-long recorded chat that I think is excellent. I’m sure some folks find it absurd, traveling 800 miles for an interview, but what better way to get a real feel for what Bob and his staff are…
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A new feature of this blogspace are ‘pod blogs’, which support and supplement some of the episodes of my herp podcast, and this is the first. In Episode 114: Always Get The Full Coverage, I and my panel of campfire cronies had an interesting discussion about mishaps and misadventures with automobiles in the field. This was such a rich vein for us to explore, and since I’ve collected a number of photos from various trips that document many mishaps, here’s a supplemental sample to go with the episode. All of this makes more sense if you’ve listened to the show first, but hey, you do you… I’m happy I took a photo of Arturo’s truck down in Coahuila, but I…
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A few weeks after we moved into our home in June of 2000, there was a tremendous rainstorm that flooded the streets and left standing water everywhere. Walking out the side door afterwards, I came across a rain-soaked American Toad (Bufo americanus) crouching by the gate, and then nearly stepped on a Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix). The snake zipped away, and I tucked the toad under a bush, out of harm’s way. In our twenty five years here, I’ve not seen another toad, but the yard garters have been constant companions during fair and foul weather, and a source of much enjoyment. As a field herper living in the middle of The Great Corn Desert that is central Illinois,…
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…”dear friends, once more…” I haven’t posted here since the second week of January in 2022, which was also the week I received my first Covid vaccination. You would think that being retired and house-bound by a pandemic would afford ample opportunities to get some writing done, but hard times are not always the best crucible for creativity, despite what you hear. And I was pouring a lot of effort into my then-new podcast, which easily absorbed all of my free time and creative energy. No complaints about that, but I had little left in the tank for the written word, not even for the Hot Stove Herping posts, heavy with thrill and chill but light on research and thoughtful…
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It’s a bit of a drive but we made from the ocean to the desert in time to get in some road-cruising after dark. There’s one quiet road that I really like, and as a bonus our friend Dan drove in from L.A. to hang out for a couple days. It’s a great road for sidewinders (Crotalus cerastes) and they did not disappoint. In fact, the sidewinders were downright amazing. We came upon our second predation event of the trip, an adult sidewinder with a kangaroo rat, right in the road. We stayed at the scene to make sure no vehicles interrupted (or ran over) the snake as it swallowed its prey. No telling if it had envenomated the roo…
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It started in Las Vegas, as many stories do, and really, there were several significant loops made during this journey. I went through the PITA hoops to secure a rental car at the airport, and then picked up Tim and John at a casino and we left Vegas in our rear-view mirror, heading west into California. We crashed that night near Bakersfield, and the next morning, headed further west to the Carrizo Plain National Monument. We met up with a group doing research on Bluntnose Leopard Lizards (Gambelia sila), and I was thrilled that we got the opportunity to walk the research area and help search for these lizards (which blend in very well with their surroundings). I was even…
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One morning we stopped in at a local animal shelter near Filadelfia and it proved to be quite an interesting experience. Jake and Dermot made a new friend – a fish-eating raccoon named ‘Shampoo’. A little nippy and a lot nosy. The place also had a large number of rescued Redfoot Tortoises (Chelonoidis carbonaria). Dermot and I are redfoot aficionados, and we had a great time walking among the many beautiful adult tortoises. I had high hopes of seeing a wild redfoot, but it was not to be on this trip. The place also had a South American Tapir (Tapirus terrestris), which was dog-tame and enjoyed being petted and scratched. Another new experience for me. The shelter had a number…
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NOTE: “Hot Stove Herping’ is a phrase I coined years ago, for use in end-of-year posts on the old Field Herp Forum. I stole it from baseball; members of the ‘hot stove league’ huddle together during the cold winter months and talk baseball until spring and the game comes back. In a similar fashion, field herpers living in moderate climates hunker down amid the cold and snow and think of the year that passed, and dream of the coming spring. Ah, Paraguay. Paraguay is a beautiful country but desperately needs to revamp their immigration bureaucracy – three members of our group were turned back at Customs for ‘suspected forgery of Covid documents’ (they weren’t). Needless to say, this was a…
