Since the herp season is officially dead here in OK now, here is my final report for 2006. I had a rough season, due to not much time in the field, compounded with a severe summer drought, but any time spent herping is time well spent!
There’s a nearby creek that is an excellent place to catch map turtles when the water is low, but if it gets too low the map turts move from the creek to the lake. That was the case when I went to visit:
The creek was reduced to a couple of puddles, but the cooters and sliders didn’t seem to mind. I was able to catch one of them:
Missouri River Cooter (Pseudemys concinna metteri)
I thought that the growth pattern of the algae was interesting. It appears as if that turtle normally basks with only the upper dome of its carapace above water.
There were also a lot of fish trapped in those lingering holes, including members of this amazing, archaic family:
Longnose Gar (Lepisosteus osseus)
They can be a pain to remove from a cast net, but luckily that one didn’t tangle up too badly. The bloody eye ball in the first pic is not from damage caused by the cast net, but rather from the removal of a fish hook. That fish is rather lucky, as many ignorant fishermen simply kill them or leave them on shore to die……..a sad end for a magnificent survivor.
They have impressive dentition:
and interlocking ganoid scales that are nothing less than a sheet of armor:
This species was particularly numerous:
Spotted Gar (Lepisosteus oculatus)
At another parched location, I came upon this shaded oasis:
A closer look revealed this:
Quite a few heads were gliding about. I wanted to see the species composition, so I walked back to my truck, put on some waders, and grabbed a spotlight. When I returned, only one snake was visible…… I thought, where in the hell did they all go? I entered the culvert and pursued the single snake (Blotched Watersnake). It immediately swam to the culvert wall and tried to poke its nose into a crevice, but there was no outlet for it. I checked the other side…….oh, that’s where they all went! Here’s an assortment of Blotched and Diamondback watersnakes enjoying some crack:
I’ve seen Nerodia in similar situations before, but not in such a convenient aggregation. There were at least 20 in that single culvert, and there are many such culverts in that area. I could have easily topped a 100 snake day if the climate inside the culverts had been a bit more comfortable. Surprisingly, there were no frogs or fish in that culvert
Nearby, I spotted this juvenile in a drying waterhole:
Common Snapper (Chelydra s. serpintina)
Here’s a cicada; I thought it was cool:
I headed west to the shortgrass prarie region of Oklahoma and Texas in order to chase some thunderstorms. Mainly, I wanted to find a live Western Hognose…………pffftt, what was I thinking. I successfully placed myself within a broad area of T-storms, but they didn’t bring out as many critters as I expected……..not even many amphibs, despite considerable rainfall. Here’s a habitat shot that characterizes much of the area:
I saw a few of these:
Eastern Green Toad (Bufo d. debilis)
And a few of these:
Red-spotted Toad (Bufo punctatus)
I was hoping to find one of those big, slimy lizards that move after rainfall, but no dice.
The first snake of the night was this hatchling, found at 2254 hours:
Eastern Yellowbelly Racer (Coluber constrictor flaviventris)
I’ve now found both a racer and a coachwhip well into the night. The hours kept rolling away, and after hearing “One Night in Bangkok” on the radio, I couldn’t get it out of my head. I was mentally singing to myself, and my mind was wandering off to the eastern hemisphere, when all of a sudden………snake in the road! The time was 0248. As I straddled it, I could tell it was a decent sized Desert Kingsnake, but in true getula fashion, by the time I got out and ran back for it, it was gone like it was never there. Oh well, at least it woke me up. About a mile after that, I drove right into a wall of pouring rain. I mused to myself that, since I was headed south, and the storms were moving to the northwest, that the snake may have been moving due to the imminent rainfall. A mere six minutes later, in the middle of the deluge, I saw a good sized snake moving across the road. Luckily I was alert that time and stopped ahead of the snake:
Great Plains Ratsnake (Pantherophis guttatus emoryi)
For the following thirty minutes, as the big cloud dropped its burden, I cruised through and ahead of the rain…………..nada. Perhaps seeing those snakes when I did was pure coincidence?
During the course of the cruise I stopped for a raccoon that was eating something on the road. Unfortunately, none of the raccoon pics turned out……..I should have walked right up to it and taken some shots, as it hardly noticed me. When it was finished with its meal, it waddled straight toward me and the headlights, and didn’t change course until I started chirping at it, and even then it just veered around me and continued down the road, into the darkness. I have a feeling that that particular animal didn't live to see many more moons. Anyway, I went to see what it was munching on, and found these remains:
It appears that it purposely consumed the innards and legs, while avoiding the skin and paratoids. That was it for the night, but I had high hopes for the following morning………..not to be………I saw one Ornate Box Turtle and one Great Plains Skink. I wish I could have stayed for a couple of more days, to see if the rainfall caused any delayed activity patterns.
I also found a few of these guys during the heat of the day:
Finally, a live Eastern Earless Lizard (Holbrookia maculata perspicua).
Here’s a habitat shot:
A cut wheat field on one side, and a plowed field on the other side (you aviation types may be familiar with that contraption in the background). I’ve been trying to find a live perspicua for a few years now. Holbrookia tend to live in small populations. You can find a lot in one spot, but not find any 100 yards away, in seemingly homogeneous habitat. I found this population in a most convenient manner. I had to relieve some bladder pressure! You can see my mark on the road. When I was finished, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be cool if I just walked off the road and scared one up. As if on cue, as soon as I heard the crunch of dry grass under my feet, I saw a little lizard dart away from me. Bingo. The first one disappeared into the broken ground, but soon enough I found one that would cooperate. It was difficult trying to discern between lizards, and grasshoppers that were using low-level evasion tactics, but no worries, I found three lizards with only a few minutes of effort.
Those lizards have apparently disappeared from many areas where they were once common. The odd thing, at least IMO, is that they can survive in areas that have regularly witnessed the plow, yet are extirpated in areas that haven’t seen such destructive land use practices.
I had some turtle traps set out in early October, hoping to catch map turtles, but they were uncooperative. However, I was able to catch plenty of sliders, snappers, and softshells. This particular snag always had a decent compliment of basking Graptemys and Trachemys:
I must say it was a bit frustrating, albeit humorous, that before checking the trap, I glassed the snag from a distance, and saw three Graptemys basking, and none of the usual sliders; of course, this picture explains that oddness:
Eight sliders in that haul.
Red Eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans):
This one had an unusual, symmetrical wound, any thoughts? :
Chew toy for an otter, redneck with a rasp file????
This Common Snapper (Chelydra serpentina) had a nice ball o’ unwanted guests:
I didn’t take any pics of the softies that were trapped, but here’s a very unhappy one that I caught while catfishing:
Spiny Softshell (Apalone spinifera) OUCH!
When I landed that bad boy on the bank, it was all fight…neck outstretched, mouth gaping and snapping at anything that dared come too close. After a bit of manipulation, I was able to cut the hook shank and pull it through……..I sent it on its merry way, not much the worse for wear.
Back to the map turtles…….I didn’t give up just because the traps weren’t working. I also spent a couple of afternoons snorkeling for them. In some of the deeper areas, I was able to creep up to within a few feet of them while they were basking, but the water was just murky enough that I couldn’t track their dive path. In the snag that I posted above, I searched the bases of the logs as well as I could, and the visibility was fine, but I couldn’t find their hideouts. I also searched the open water, but all I saw were sliders along the bottom. In defeat, I tagged along with a couple of guys while they were electro-fishing. I was mainly interested to see if they would turn up any Siren or Necturus, but, voila, a well shocked map turtle:
Ouachita Map Turtle (Graptemys ouachitensis)
At one of the turtle trapping sites, I decided that the habitat looked good for Midland Watersnakes, a species that reaches its westernmost limit in this area ( = a good find). While flipping numerous rocks along the riffle portions of the river, I found plenty of these; primo smallie bait:
Hellgrammite (Dobson fly larva)
After about fifty rocks, I finally uncovered the maroon bands that my mind’s eye was waiting for, and received a nice little dash of adrenaline:
Alas, it was just a Blotched Watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster transversa), but hey, I’ll take any Nerodia, any day!
In September, my wife and I went on a weekend camping trip to the Ouachita Mountains of eastern OK. I wanted to look for some of the endemic Plethodon, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to put much effort toward that goal. While in the field, I spotted this speck working its way from a clearing into the pines:
Speckled Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula holbrooki)
On the road, I snapped a quick shot of this Timber:
Crotalus horridus
I also saw a cottonmouth, a couple of copperheads, and an assortment of DOR colubrids. Closer to home (south-central OK), I explored some new areas, with an emphasis on finding fields where the limestone flags were not picked up and used as fence anchors, such as this:
After a lot of driving the back roads, I did find several such places, but they didn’t pan out well. I think I only found two herps under the hundreds of rocks! Perhaps spring will tell another story?
I flipped this snake along a roadside that was littered with limestone:
Ground Snake (Sonora semiannulata)
After flipping the one early on, I was surprised that I didn’t find a dozen more……..on multiple trips to that spot. Equally surprising was a lack of these:
Jumbo size Great Plains Narrowmouth Toa…..err Frog (Gastrophryne olivacea)
However, while traversing the back roads, I did see a lot of box turtles of both species; here’s a characteristically uncooperative Ornate:
Terrapene o. ornate
Snakewise, on the roads, I did see a decent number of AOR coachwhips and racers, and a few DOR timbers, copperheads, ratsnakes, and prarie kings.
Here’s a skinny female speck I found on the road:
Egg-laying probably took a toll on her, but compounded with this wound, her fate this winter is likely sealed:
I bagged her for pics, as I was cameraless at the time, thus the fuzz on the wound. Upon capture, the wound was relatively clean….no blood, just a bit of dirt....it most likely escaped a bird of prey.
While in the field looking for pygmy rattlesnakes, I found a cottonmouth enjoying this sanctuary at the base of a tree…….I’ve checked the same spot on multiple occasions…….glad it finally produced!
Flipping artificial cover isn’t particularly productive in this area, so I was happy to finally find this ratsnake under some cover that I’ve been checking for the past few years:
Intergrade ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus)
A phenotypic Texas rat was a nice change; most of the others I’ve found in this area were rather drab, with mucho black rat influence to dirty them up.
Artificial cover does produce a lot of these:
Everyones favorite spider, Brown Recluse (Loxosceles sp.)
On a mammalian note, while staying at my parent’s lakehouse one weekend, I encountered a rabid striped skunk. Now, in the past, I’ve seen skunks and raccoons that I suspected were rabid, due to somewhat odd behavior, but I wasn’t positive. However, there was no question about the most recent one; it’s amazing how debilitating the disease becomes in its latter stages.
It was at night, and I noticed the skunk in the cast of a dim security light on the adjacent property (~ 40 yds. away). I pointed it out to my wife, and we watched it for a couple of minutes from that distance. The skunk looked like it was rubbing the ground, similar to a dog when it wipes its arse, by sticking its rear legs forward, and crawling forward on its front two. I assumed that it was just some skunk behavior, perhaps scent marking, that I didn’t know about. It disappeared from view behind a shed, and I didn’t think any more of it.
About ten minutes later, I went back out to my truck, and saw the skunk again, this time in the back yard, and behaving in the same manner. Since it was much closer at that point, I could see that it was definitely not “right.” I walked up to within about 15 feet of it, without it paying any attention to me. While wandering aimlessly, every few steps it would lose motor function to its rear legs, and just slump, slightly propped up on the front legs. I watched it for a bit, knowing full well what the problem was. I whistled at it a couple of times, but there was no response. Finally, I clapped my hands, and that registered. It lifted its head and tail a bit, and attempted to stand on all four, but the rear legs were wobbly, and after a few seconds they collapsed……it then lost focus again, and continued the aimless journey……..
I put the skunk out of its misery, and buried it deep. Keeping an eye on the area, a while later, I wasn’t surprised to see another skunk curiously sniffing the scene:
This one was perfectly aware of my presence, and after satisfying its curiousity, it continued on into the darkness.
The next day (a Sunday), I reported the encounter to a game warden, thinking that perhaps the health dept. may keep note of such occurrences, but he told me that unless someone is exposed, they don’t bother to test suspect animals.
Late October and early November are always wild cards in southern OK, because you never know what hand the weather may deal. Generally, I don't expect to find adult snakes on the move after the third week in October (=first frost), but some (unfit ?) juveniles seemingly always make a post-frost move when there is a spell of warm weather. This yearling ratsnake was making its way to a rock cut in the am hours:
In the pm, I cruised one of my favorite stretches of road:
A small section of that dirt is good for these:
When I was looking at my viewfinder, I thought, where in the hell is its head?
Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus)
And, the really awesome find:
Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis....)
Yeah, I know, and I've been to places where I found that species common, but not here. That was my find of the year! However, in true herp fashion, it was humbling........I found it on the sidewalk leading to my door! It reminded me of sirtalis along the TX coast......they just are where they are! I can't complain!
I'm looking forward to some warm rains in January for Ambystoma, and some Crawfish Frogs in February!
Happy Winter,
Shane
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