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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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…
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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. For the first time in ten years, I did not start off the herping season in January with a trip to Peru. Due to Covid, we canceled our expeditions for the year and planned on regrouping in 2022. As it…
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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. This herping trip took place in early April 2021 and spans three states – Louisiana, Mississippi, and a little bit of Alabama. Much of the trip was spent checking out trash piles, tin sites, and board lines across the three…
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Spring, summer or fall, it doesn’t matter – when the sun sets on the far side of the Mississippi, amphibians and reptiles are out and about in the La Rue-Pine Hills Research Natural Area. Walking along Snake Road after dark can be interesting and can produce a few surprises. Treefrogs tend to start coming out after sunset, and it doesn’t have to be completely dark out – mostly dark seems to be enough to trigger activity. Perhaps the most common (and most iconic) is the Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea). Green treefrogs are easier to spot at night. They tend to move out from their hiding places in the vegetation, and they stand out very well in the beam of a…
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Some of our large group had to return home, but the rest of us pushed on to Hong Kong and another type of herping situation. For the first few days we stayed on Lantau Island, and herped the open green spaces there. The hills were lush with vegetation, and hiking trails along the rainwater catchment systems provided opportunities for observing amphibians and reptiles. It was beautiful up there. Guenther’s Brown Frog (Sylvirana guentheri) was perhaps the most common frog we saw on Lantau. A ‘green phase’ copper-cheeked Frog (Odorrana chloronota). The first snake was this Red-necked Keelback (Rhabdophis subminiatus), which is both venomous and poisonous (it’s a bit complicated: this serpent sequesters bufotoxins in nuchal glands). Giant Spiny Frog (Quasipaa…
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Our big group, swelled even larger by the addition of Alex and Nhut, landed at Hanoi and made their way to a hotel in the old French quarter of the city. How exciting to visit a place that for years seemed completely out of reach! We were heading out of Hanoi the next morning, but this day and night were ours to explore and enjoy the old quarter. In the morning we boarded a chartered bus and headed south and east to Cuc Phuong, Vietnam’s oldest national park, which is situated on line of forested, karsty hills. We checked in with park headquarters, and then rode the last leg down the park road for twenty klicks, terminating at a little…
