Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, me and my friend are going to drive to Florida from New England in mid March. We want to stop at Okifenokee Swamp in GA/FL, some areas north of Olrando like Ocala State Forest I think it is, and eventually the Everglades. Does anyone have any specific tips to finding snakes in these areas, and the probability of finding snakes in these areas that time of year? If we are driving down the road and see woods or a pond, if we search it will we find snakes, or do you need to know specific areas? We especially want to see a diamondback, I'm sure it's not that easy to find them, but whats the best part of Florida to find them?

Also, I read things in ealier topics here about not letting people see you are catching snakes. How come? Is that only like if we are collecting them or pissing off threatened species? Because we only plan on taking pictures. Should we not ask police officers where to find snakes?

Aything else we should know?

Thanks

take state road 27 south thru the center of the state and look for open sandy feilds without fences and hunt in tall grass and look for trash piles. common snakes to find in march are:racers ratsnakes,coachwhips,indogos are common in the south part of the state from orlando to the everglades and st. rd. 27 is old and barren with lots of trash to hunt. do not collect in the everglades state park or you will go to jail and your car will be impounded for good. scarlet kings are found in dead pinetree stumps if the ground is still wet, try hunting the many trees in charlotte county and cornsankes are commomly found in those stumps as well. and I don't care who see me collecting snakes... but don't get cought treaspassing on privite land or you'll get shot. hope this helps and have a blast in fla. JB

Excellent advice, but I doubt you're any more likely to get shot in Florida than in New England. I've been threatened with a gun exactly once in my herping career, and it was in a national forest, not on private property. If you're caught trespassing you'll be asked to leave, sometimes civilly and sometimes less so, but firearms - though often on display in a gun rack in the back window - aren't generally employed in this sort of transaction.

As to the likelihood of finding snakes, mid-March is usually sunny and 70 degrees, though cold spells are still quite possible and even the milder days can be windy. If the weather's nice, the herps should be out.

Diamondbacks like sandy upland habitats, where gopher tortoises live, but they seem equally at home in pine-palmetto flatwoods. It's my impression that they're more common in the southern half of the peninsula.

Another bit of advice: buy yourself a DeLorme Atlas for getting around Florida:

http://shop.delorme.com/OA_HTML/DELibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?item=118§ion=10096&beginIndex=0

They're invaluable, though you should keep in mind that areas marked as swamp are often just large tracts of privately-owned planted pine.

As the previous poster said, have a blast.

Rex
Gainesville, FL

Thanks a bunch both of you for all the advice. Ya, there can be some creeps here in New england too, thieves, child molesters..stuff like that. Generally when I search for snakes people think I'm the creep because I'm snooping around the woods with no aprent cause. I was more worried of fish and game people or police, but I guess that's only a problem if you are collecting, which we are not going to be doing.

Anyway, I was looking at satellite views of the area from local.live.com. Looks like a lot of crop fields there as well. Are those going to produce any reptiles? Or are most of those privae properties? Also, the road looks like a highway, 27 that is, are we going to be able to just pull off the side of that road and search the imediate areas nearby, or should we take some exits and go through some backroads first? If we do find a nice trash pile or pine area with rotted logs and such, is it highly likely there will be snakes, or is there just a good chance there could be nothing. It's like that up here, some areas look great but seem to have nothing, but then again, there are a lot more snakes in FL than MA/NH.

Thanks

Crop fields - orange groves are probably what you're looking at along 27 - are private property, but they're relatively unproductive so you're not missing out on much. Highway 27 is not an interstate highway, so there's no question of having to take exits; ordinarily you'll be able to pull to the shoulder without breaking any laws if you see a promising spot.

There's a lot to be said for visiting public land if you've got limited time and you're just looking for photos. Archbold Biological Station is just east of 27 in Lake Placid and is a great example of Florida scrub. Here's the Station's web site and its herp list:
http://www.archbold-station.org/abs/index.htm
http://www.archbold-station.org/abs/data/lists/herplist.htm

You can Google Florida State Parks, National Forests (Ocala NF is a standout), etc. and find plenty of good places to stop. I imagine you'll run out of time before you get to half the places you'd like to see.

As to whether any likely-looking spot will yield herps, I imagine it's very much like New England. Some will, some won't. I can guarantee you only one thing: you'll see plenty of Brown Anoles.

Rex
Gainesville, FL

just drive around in the orange groves and look for plywood signs on the ground, take all roads east and west of 27, and look for the tall grass. start north of st rd 60 and go south on old st rd 17 and 27 till you get to the big lake. JB I'll even garrentee you'll find some racers and reds (corns).JB