If you pass through the panhandle, there's Palo Duro State Park, Wildcat BLuff Nature Preserve and Buffalo Lake Wildlife Reserve, all near Amarillo.



Species list of what I've found in those areas:

Great Plains Rat snake

Bull Snakes

Texas Long Nose Snakes

Ringneck (not sure which subspecies)

Coachwhips

Western Diamondbacks

Prairie Rattlers

Diamondback water snake (in a stream in Palo Duro--nearly soiled myself I was so happy)

Banded Water Snakes near any permanent body of water

Western Hognose--more common

Eastern Hognose--less common

Western Ribbons

Night Snake (woot!)

racer but unsure if it was eastern or western



Collared Lizards

Checkered Whiptails (Palo Duro only)

Six Lined Race Runners

Great Plains Skinks

Texas Horned Lizards--Palo Duro mostly

Ornate Box Turtle--WildCat bluff has TONS of these but I've found 'em in all three

Red Ear Slider

Common Snapper



Toads I don't find so much I do see bullfrogs and there's some sort of hylid I find in the reeds near water. We get a lot of toads, but I'm horrible at ID'ing them. We also have tiger salamanders but I have better luck inside city limits, just looking in drainage ditches, than going to parks and stuff with those.



I know they have desert kings too but I've never found one despite much looking. *cry*



I have the best luck early mornings--Palo Duro opens at 8, wildcat bluff at 9, buffalo lake is seasonally variable. Keep in mind, all of these places will bust you for flipping so you mostly just have to be careful and look. There's a praire dog town in Wildcat Bluff that has some resident rattlers that aren't too hard to spot (WDBs) if you go early in the morning while they're warming up. There's also a windmill near a water tank there that used to have a really big resident great plains rat, but I couldn't find him last time.



Palo Duro has lots, I mean tons, of packrat nest, and it's pretty common to find either rattlers or bulls hanging out around 'em. There's a stream that runs through (Paseo Del Rio) where you can find the horned lizards and water snakes, and usually turkey. Lighthouse trail has the most whiptails, and some collards, and the Running Trail has but-tons of collards and I seem to see more Nastycophis out on that trail than anywhere else.



There's also tons of birds that stop by; I'm no birder but we get lots of different types. Mammals...well, I see deer nearly every time I go to any of those three. There's been rumors of cougar in palo duro and buffalo lake but nothing confirmed yet

Can you tell how I spend my free time? Didn't go to the canyon this summer much cause of gas prices though *sigh*

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