Reptile & Amphibian Forums

in 'o2 there were a couple of germans over here herping. They returned to Del Rio after a buying trip to California. They came back with all sorts of goodies. Unfortunately the had most of them in a large ice chest and during the night they left the lid down and most of them asphyxiated.

I saved some of them in the frezer in my room for future use.

One snake that I put out was a Bay of L.A. rosy boa which I put out in the northbound lane at the end of the cuts N. of the rest area on 277. Later that night I was coming south on 277 and saw a young man sitting in the middle of the northbound lane, holding something in his hand. I asked him what he had and, with tears in his voice, he said "I've come all this way from (I think it was vermont, maybe NJ) to find a gray banded kingsnake, SOB, and I finally found my first one, SOB, and it is SOB a STRIPED ONE and SOB it is DEAD. (more sobbing)

I finally told him that it was a rosy boa and they usually weren't found in this area.

for some reason this reminds me of the Kid that started off on the wrong end of 277 by Eagle Pass, and ends up in Loma Alta with a knockout alterna female on his first trip out west, all with one cheesy headlight.

I remember that kid, had your alternatives price list, was using it as a hunting guide, started out in Egale pass, worked his way north. Wasn't the same kid. The one with the DOR rosy I never saw before or again.

One night me and Kamuran made a turn in Lajitas and something caught my eye so I eased to a stop and Kam says "whatcha see?" I said "I think it's a stick but I want another look". So I eased it in reverse, rolled down my window and Kam says "what is it?" I said "IT IS a stick! And it's got electrical tape around it, and a string tied to it, and there's a guy on the other end pulling on the string!" We were already laughing and asked the guy where he was from and when he replied "IOWA" for some reason we really busted loose and drove off.

One night my dad and I were hunting hywy 277. We ran into, another herper (can't remember name but worked for the Abilene Zoo for a while). He had a whole bag of fake rubber snakes that were painted to like alterna. He said he was going to be putting them out. We laughed and said we would keep an eye out. A little later we were driving south when I saw a snake on the road. As we got closer I told my dad "hey there is a swarm of alterna coming across the road". As we got close there were about 8 of them placed in the road in a V formation like a flock of birds. I jumped out and picked them up and brought them back to the truck. We were looking at them and admiring the fine workmanship of the paint jobs. A couple minutes later we started driving and not more than 50 yards down the road there was a live light "alterna" phase moving in front of us. Initially I thought it was another fake, until I saw it moving. I probably would not have been on the road if we had not spent the time picking up and looking at the fake ones. We spent the rest of the night placing the fake ones in various places.