Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A little beginner's luck. Jim Dobis and I found this blairs about 5.3 miles west of the west leg of the Langtry loop at about 11PM. It was about 6 feet up the cut. Thanks to Jim for being a great guide and showing me how to find my first alterna.

The pictures are as the snake was found...

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Tom,

I really enjoyed the trip, You got one on your first time out!! Finding that alterna was a great way to end the trip, and we even got the "John Frazer style" in situ shot this time. Thanks to all the other hunters we met, you guys are all great,and make the experience complete. Crosby's was a blast, Thanks Wayne for helping to get everyone together. It was a pleasure to meet some new guys too, Coach, Steve and Ron, Marshall, an all the others we met along the way.

Keep shining,
Jim Dobis

Gorgeous one.
I didn't know they were such good climbers.
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

Congrats, I just missed her! Dang it! I spent about 8 hours out there last week.
Todd Hughes

Congrats, nice find.

exciting...ain't it??

Hey Bob!

Yeah Man! It was a great trip... and to cap it off with an alterna on the last night really put the icing on the cake.

We moved to Florida by the way, so I'll have to catch up to you sometime in Texas.

Take care,
Tom

A nice find, particularly for your first one. Did someone restrain you from running up the cut until you took the photo? I keep meaning to take pics "in situ" but when I see an alterna the instincts take over and I plumb forget the camera.

I was able to hold Tom back. out of the 5 I've collected this is the second one (on a cut) that was not a scramble at first spot. it was fortunate that we were relaxed i guess since we found an emori of about the same size 40 minutes before and a nightsnake 15 minutes before, glued on the cuts and neither of them were going anywhere either, at least once the light was on them. This snake was just too perfect not to take the in situ photo. I held the light on the snake while Tom got the camera set, we probably had the snake in our reach for 30 seconds to a minute without touching it. once it was photograbhed, I told Tom to "go ahead and catch your first alterna"

It's like so unreal...ya know!

Jim

Jim........great account of the evenings' events. Tell your buddy, Tom, that the next one may not be so easy. Saw my first grayband ever back in '99 on Black Gap......freshly hit and still writhing. Got my first live one on 277 he next year on Memorial Day weekend. No luck since then on my annual weekly trips. Tou simply have to be there when they are a crawlin'!

nah, Jim taught me how to find 'em...

Some pictures to go along with Jim's story...

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...this one turned out nice to my surprise...

That was one great hour of Hunting!

Jim

Congrats. I think its cool that you first got naturalistic pictures and then caught the snake as opposed to catching the snake and setting up some naturalistic pictures. I dont know if I'd be able to sit there and first take pics of the snake. Nice looking alterna.
-Scott
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Scott Wahlberg (wahlbergsa@titan.sfasu.edu)