Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Captured a shot of this guy sunning himself, apparently I must of seen something like 8-10 lizards on that road, they are out when the sun and night temps come up. Not the normal pattern I am used of. I understand from NOAA that we will have another cold snap in February, which I have seen before, but I suspect we may have an early spring by all the reptile species I have seen of late.....

-----
www.phrynosoma.org

Typical south Texas winter. Whenever the temps get up into the 70s for a couple of days, many of the herps will pop out. I generally consider February to be the start of "spring" around here because there is usually at least one period of 80+ degree weather (sometimes more than one). Plus a lot of the native vegetation will commence to bloom during that month.

(I'm about 30 miles south of San Antonio)
-----
Tom Lott

Thornscrub

Herp Conservation Unlimited

Tom, don't I remember you having Texas tortoises around your place? Seems I remember someone saying they had them in your in your neck of the woods. Yep, spring is around the corner, but we do get "blasts" that set them back down on and off till later. I don't consider it spring till the night temps hold above 70 degrees! most herps have already been busy under cover, at least down here on the coast.
-----
Todd Hughes

Todd,

Although I have seen a few Texas tortoises here in northern Atascosa County, including two in my backyard (in 25 years!), they are not common here at all. I typically see three or four crushed on I-37 and TX 16 each year where the habitat was originally live oak savannah but is at least half second growth mesquite, etc. now. They are seen a bit more frequently in the southern part of the county, where the habitat is solidly "brush country."

The torts are doing somewhat better than the Western Boxes, however. I have seen exactly zero boxes in that same 25 year period in Atascosa County. It's kind of amazing when one considers that both were equally common in second growth habitats up to about 40 years ago.
-----
Tom Lott

Thornscrub

Herp Conservation Unlimited

I hear you Tom, I guess I was thinking about someone else. I can only find the boxies in Refugio, Goliad, and Aransas counties, and haven't seen one in my own county in 30 years. I did see a dor in Kleberg county last year.
-----
Todd Hughes

>>I hear you Tom, I guess I was thinking about someone else. I can only find the boxies in Refugio, Goliad, and Aransas counties, and haven't seen one in my own county in 30 years. I did see a dor in Kleberg county last year.
>>-----
>>Todd Hughes

Todd,

There is a small refuge in our county where I used to find both Texas tortoises and ornate box turtles quite commonly. This is the area I spoke of where I saw the huge bullsnake. I also used to see Texas horned lizards there, and once found a freshly hatched clutch of baby horned lizards. This was in the late 70's to mid 80's when I found all these animals.

The refuge is still there, but the last few times I've been there, I have not seen a single herp.

I do know of one area (in our county) where the occasional Texas tortoise turns up, though.

-Toby Brock
-----
The Ratsnake Foundation

Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research

Tom--I am in Castroville, not far from you? Perhaps you can come out with me and Randy sometime? Berlander's are indigenous to the area, last year I stopped and looked at one near Hondo Creek (halfway between Castroville & Hondo) that was run over. I am sure it was wild, one of th old timers I spoke with last year said they quite common here and pointed to a hill across Highway 90 that they used to find them when they were kids.

I agree with respect to early spring, while checked out the future forecasts with the big guys, it seems as though they say we can expect a cold snap in Februrary and then right after that a warm-up.

Here are my spring gauges, I collect ants for my horned lizard Study, the ants have never really went down this year, I see them walking around the holes not just congregated at the mouth, when its cold they go down. Also I have seen with in the last month, on one property a bull snake, a ribbon snake, a Patch nose, a Texas Garter, a banded water snake, whip tails, several swifts of varying species, and I am still capturing moths in my bug napper, this all points to a mild winter and early spring in my opinion.
-----
www.phrynosoma.org

Did you get my reticulatus field data? I tried emailing it shortly after I sent the pics, but occasionally our mail server decides not to send things arbitrarily.
-----
Chris McMartin
www.mcmartinville.com
I'm Not a Herpetologist, but I Play One on the Internet

Yes I did indeed and certianly appreciat eyour contriburion. I'll keep in touch as spring comes on, I am hoping we might cross paths at some time......
-----
www.phrynosoma.org

Sounds good. I'm in Pleasanton, not too far from Castroville.

I hope those reports of Texas Tortoises being quite common in the area are correct, but a lot of old-timers--like myself--tend to think of things the way they used to be rather than how they currently are.

I think you are probably correct about the mild winter. Unfortunately, mild winters around here usually equal little or no rainfall.

Fantastic website you guys have put together.
-----
Tom Lott

Thornscrub

Herp Conservation Unlimited

Back in the mid-70s when I lived in and herped Medina County pretty heavy, I saw a couple of Texas Tortoises but they were by no means anywhere near being common even that far back. That was 30 years ago...I another of those old-timers that has difficulty remembering "that was then and this is now". A lot of habitats have really changed in South Texas since those days.
-----
Gerald Keown
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research
www.southwesternherp.com

I was reading these posts and I guess I didn't get it with respect to you all talking about tortoises and there commonality here in Medina County, after I read my own post I realized that I left out, "The old timer said, there used to be", or were lots of them years ago (don't know how far back but he was in his 780's I am sure.
I am sorry for misleading this conversation, it certainly was accidental. Your all correct on this, in fact I was just sighting the run over one in Hondo that for me verified they are still here in Medina County, in fact my in-laws told me 5 years ago they saw what they called a desert tortoise on their property in Medina County and I have never seen one there, but they said it was crossing the drive down to their house. So "if" they are there in Medina County, certainly they cannot be many.... Hey I am sorry for that and had no idea I had typed that up that way. Well it made for a good conversation....
Because of the type of life style these tortoises live, just like desert tortoises, I wonder why they can't do a breeding program and repatriate some of these into some participating ranches and wild areas. It seems to me they would take off again as far as population? Anyone know if they have tried this? It has been done in California I believe with relative success?

Only place I have run into those is out in Uvalde around a research area we have found them after a rain, I assume there are some populations out that way as well....Sorry I messed up on that one.....
-----
www.phrynosoma.org

I have extensive field experience at one property in Medina county.
In this part of the county I concur that they are there, but probably in limited numbers. Here are a few photos of Medina county specimens:

-----
http://www.hcu-tx.org

Hey Joe, are the darker ones younger or is there some sexual dimorphism going on there? I like the first pic best!
-----
Todd Hughes

I'm embarrased to say I had been living here in Central Texas for a couple of years before I noticed something strange about some of our fence lizards like this one - that aren't fence lizards, they are Rose-bellied Swifts. I hadn't ever noticed they came up this far north!

I still haven't been able to get a photograph of one around here however.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas