Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

I will be taking a trip to Gainesville, Florida to visit the university there this February. I will be there for only three nights, but will have one whole day available for herping... I understand that February is often considered a bad time for herping in Florida, but that some herps can be found there in various habitats. I do not get to travel to such locations very often (although I did have a delightful herping excursion through Puerto Rico over the summer) and would really like to get the most out of this experience. Any new find is an accomplishment for me when I am field herping. Do you have any reccomendations of places I could visit in the Gainesville area that are good for herps that time of year? I would like to start planning as early as possible. This would be a day trip, lasting from early morning into the night. I have included a list of my most-wanted finds, to make suggestions easier. Thank you very much for your help!

MOST WANTED FINDS:

Eastern coral snake
Southern black racer
Scarlet kingsnake and Florida scarlet snake
Brahminy blindsnake
Coachwhip
Rough greensnake
Eastern diamondback rattlesnake
Florida crowned snake
Florida brown or redbelly snake
Corn snake
Yellow rat snake
And a Burmese python might be nice (though I honestly hope the population is beginning to die off)...

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DAVE

0.0.1 Oriental fire-bellied toad
0.1 Western hog-nosed snake
0.0.1 Okeetee corn snake
0.1 Dubia day gecko
0.0.1 yellow * Everglades rat snake
1.0 Yunnan beauty snake
1.0 scarlet kingsnake
0.1 albino African clawed frog
0.0.1 Northern black racer
0.0.1 African brown house snake (Zambia locale)
0.0.1 Sonoran gopher snake
1.1 European fire salamanders
(parthenogenic) Brahminy blindsnakes *

see paynes prairie perserve state park, you'll see snakes there for sure...JB

It's all very dependent on the weather. It's quite possible you'll get a cold windy day, and it's about equally possible you'll get a still, cloudless day with near-perfect temperatures. If you're lucky with the weather you'll have a fair chance at black racers and water snakes (inc. brown at spring runs and Florida green in extensive marshes). Unfortunately, though, most of the things on your list are pretty rarely seen. Paynes Prairie, mentioned in a previous response, is flooded at this point, though if this dry spell continues there's a fair chance it will be accessible by February. The Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve near Cross Creek has excellent sandhill and flatwoods habitat, though you can find larger and better tracts of both at Goethe State Forest and Ocala National Forest, which are both within an hour's drive (as well as scrub habitat in ONF, which might be a better place to spend the day, as a matter of fact). In the Cross Creek area you can also access the marshy shore of Orange Lake at Marjorie Rawlings Park. There are lots of publicly-owned natural areas in the Gainesville area, but this ought to be enough to get you started. You can get the locations of all these sites via Google.

(By the way, I think the wild Burmese pythons you mentioned are pretty much restricted to South Florida.)

Rex
Gainesville