Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I always like to read posts of weird things people have seen or found while herping. I think West Texas is a good spot for unusual things. Nathan Hall and I were leaving Black Gap one night around 1:30 a.m. and found a duck walking down the middle of the dirt road. We thought that was a bit odd and looked a little outta place. My first trip ever to West Texas the only thing I found was a midwest field hook on top of a cut on Juno. To think I had just spent 60 or 70 dollars for one right before we left. I never really thought I would find a snake hook while looking for snakes. I bet the guy that left it probably had just got a greyband and in the excitement forgot his hook. What kind of weird stuff have you seen or found??

Chris Drake

Once I found an empty Kripy Kreme donut box and had assumed Tremper had just passed by! LOL, just kiddin' bud!
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Todd Hughes

was seen when on a binge! LOL!

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Todd Hughes

I have never seen anything weird out west, but I once lost a midwest hook.
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South Texas Herps

Ah man... I hate when that happens!

Chris Drake

I think it was an illusion but I thought I saw John Hollister without a cigarette in his hand standing next to a cut.
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Snakes of Hudspeth County, Texas

Naw, if it had of been JH, he would have had a cigarette in one hand and a coffee cup in the other.
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Gerald Keown
Southwestern Center for Herpetological Research
www.southwesternherp.com

LMAO!!! Geez, I almost spilled my beer again!
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Todd Hughes

Don't know how strange.... May actually be common.
Have seen at multiple cuts, usually under a tree. Piles of cans of tuna, potted meat, fruit, etc, all unopened. Along with bottled water and a change of clothes. Definitely pit stops for illegals. I'm always caught off guard by these things when shining at night.

This may or may not be that weird, but last year, Sean Peach, Tanner Tumlinson, and I were hunting Black Gap, and there was a HUGE white lizard in the middle of the road (about a mile or two from the border), and what's more, it was VERY alert. We saw a lot of smaller sleeping lizards on the road, but this guy was a monster and was awake and upright when we found him. We got out and chased it, and it could flat out boogie,...pretty alert and agile for a lizard at 1 in the morning.

Just from the size (probably 5 or 6 inches, head-to-vent), color, and speed, it had to have been a Gambelia wislizenii, if those, indeed, occur down there.

DR
Suboc.com

Was the night full or dark moon?

Last year to my suprise and to the suprise of others herping in NM, we observed crotaphytus on several occasions from 10 pm-2 am alert and active on the blacktops and dirt roads. Most nights were full moon and 1 was spotted after a small thundershower.

I've seen most Collareds in my life during the day, so it was very odd.

Have any of you seen the earless lizards sleeping in depressions right out in the middle of the road in Black Gap? I've found them that way the last two years in a row, nd it seems awfully strange-even though traffic is very light, one would think it would be a behaviour definitely selected against!
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

I have seen the earless sleeping that way several times on River Rd. Once I caught one and it made the best scenting lizard.

Dark phase of the moon. Yeah, it was pretty weird seeing a big diurnal lizard out at night...awake.
Suboc.com

No doubt.
Thanks for sharing.

Hey Chris, good to see you on the forum buddy. Many would agree that exploring all that the Trans-Pecos has to offer never gets old and that every visit produces something unique that will always stay with you. Seems that you always come across something to make you laugh or that simply makes you wonder. Other than some of the weird coots I have stummbled across, I think one of the strangest things I have seen thus far happened to me and my friend Rob Klockman a few years ago while out on Hwy 277. We had been hunting for most the evening, virtually walking all the cuts north and south of the picnic area. A few hours in to hunting we came across a large blood stained steak knife. Although it was odd to find such a thing, we didn't thing much of it, laughed and threw it back amongst all the other broken beer bottles and crap along the road. However, a few hours later, while walking the same series of cuts on the other side of the road, Rob picks up a pair of bloody panties with his tongs. We didn't really know what to think at that moment...
Most likely just a coindcence to find the two in such close proximity to one another, so we left it alone. Although, my wife was pretty upset when she found out...LOL.
Nathan

One of my strangest things was not a find per say... Lance and I were walking Caruthers on 277. It was a standard Weekend night. However it was past 11 and the traffic was starting to slow down. I was walking the west side. No cars were around. All of a sudden I heard a noise behind me and to my surprise I saw a guy walking about 20 feet from me. I jumped around to a more defensive stance and had my light and snake hook pointed at him. He freaked out and says "WHOA DUDE!!!!!". I said "Dude, don't sneak up on someone in the middle of nowhere".
He was like, are you guys agents or border patrol. I said "no, we are out here researching snakes". He then explains that his friends played a prank and dropped him off in the middle of nowhere. He wasn't an illegal that I could tell, blonde, short hair, standard English. He asks if we could drive him to Sonora and I said no, can't do it. But we did give him some Water since he looked like he needed it. He later found a ride with a passing 18 wheeler.

Moral of the story, be on your guard. You can listen to your ipods and headphones while you walk, but you do so at your own risk.

Steven Owens

We had three pickups with about two men each try to box us in against a cut when we stopped to let them pass.

We backed around them and waited on them to get back in the trucks and leave.... not sure what they had in mind, but it did not seem like they were look out for our best interest.

Lance
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Herp Conservation Unlimited

That's crazy! What did you do after that? I'd be weirded out all night.

We kept hunting 277... on the plus side we were like twice as alert the rest of the night

Lance
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Herp Conservation Unlimited

Could have been Lester and his buddies....

No, he was on Juno, and yes I did have an encounter with him...

I was talking to him on the side or the road and the bugs were swarming my flashlight so I turned it off... We were just standing there talking after all. Then in the dark I felt somebody gently grap my "package" in the dark.

I turned on my flashlight, backed away real slow, got in the truck and left... did not say a word.

Who wants another story?

Lance
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Herp Conservation Unlimited

NO FREAKING WAY DUDE, There would have been a ars whipping going on there brother.
L8r Shannon

Way....

As for the whooopp'n... I was completely shocked at the time and most likely better off for not beating him to death with my mag light. I should have filed an assault charge though, what happened did qualify as "unwanted touching".

Lance
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Herp Conservation Unlimited

I've heard of a few stories on that guy. One involved a group of guys thinking of camping there while cruising the area. Upon checking in at the house, One of them goes up to the house, only to find Les,I assume, wearing nothing but socks, shoes, and a shirt, talking to himself. They were so freaked, that they left and hunted Terrell country instead.

Every time I hear about it, I can't quit laughing.....

Good story Lance, please tell more.
South Plains Reptile

ah!!!......lesterdamolester.......

The bloody knife story reminds me of a time when I had to go herping alone. I couldn't find anyone to go out with, so decided to try the 190 cuts between Iraan and 305. Shined the cuts on the South side, then proceeded up the North. After walking up the hill towards the picnic area, a big ravine exists with trees around it. I was walking down the boulders when I came across a shoe, some bloody pant pieces, and mangled truck parts. Nearby was a cross signifying someone had lost thier life there. Was definitely weird, so I decided not to walk the rest of the night and just cruised the area.

In '05 I talked to a local paramedic in Iraan who told me of the accident. A trucker lost control on a rainy evening towards the top of the hill. As his truck jack-knifed and started down the hill, he jumped out and was caught between the trailer and the cab, severing his leg at the hip. Unfortunately, he died soon after due to blood loss. Dps thought he could have survived if he hed remained in the cab of the truck.
I visited the site this summer and all pieces of wreckage as well as clothes, etc, are piled around the cross.
Anyone else seen this spot?

Hey Nathan, Thanks. Bloody knives and bloody panties, It sounds more like you were herping the Camp Crystal Lake area! I'm going to try to make a few trips out this year. Maybe we can drag Nathan out of Austin and make a trip.

Chris Drake

Yeah, we aught to head down to Fred's place in the Gap and bring him a case of beer...
Nathan

I have found a small backpack with pancho, water jug and a fake Rolex on 277 by the picnic area stashed in the trees, definitely an illegals stash.
Found a table spoon sticking out of a crack in a cut on 90 near Langtry.
Found a Horned lizard stuck to the blactop upside down between Marathon and Sanderson two years ago, that was weird. I figured a vehicle passed over it and flipped it onto a soft tar spot.
Hey, how do I get my snake hook back, lol!
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Todd Hughes

This was in the summer of 1974 on River Rd between the Hill and Lajitas. I was hunting the area as was Bob Mackin and I don't think anyone else. Someone had hit a very large bull that was lying at the edge of the road, part on the pavement. No, that wasn't the weird part... that came the next pass. I was buzzing toward Big Hill, having just passed the bull and dead truck that had hit it and was just heading along one of the low-lying straight shots of road when I thought I saw something moving on the side of the road (person-size). I slowed slightly and suddenly saw some sort of wire or cable right at windshield height right ahead of me. I jammed on the brakes, hit it, and saw huge sparks shooting off the side of my truck where the wire hit the metal of my truck! There were no power lines there so this was really strange and it really spooked me. I didn't stop -- I zoomed on and did not see the bashed up truck that had hit the bull on the next pass to Lajitas. Never did find out what happened. And no, this isn't bull.... I found the Big Hill alterna below not many days after this.

Anyone ever spend time with the Marfa Lights? --HW

Me and my friend stopped for a Lyresnake on the Big Hill one time. As we were watching it crawl across the road and taking pictures a couple other herpers saw us and started doing the same. After a few minutes this car pulls up with two young couples in it. One of the women asks if she could borrow a flashlight. Somebody gave her one and she starts walking the cut, shining the base. She then lifts up a rock, calmly picks up a suspicious looking homemeade cigarette, says something to the effect of "this is what I was looking for" and gets back in the car and they drove away. The next day several of us were eating dinner at the Starlight and guess who our waitress was? None other than Miss Mary Jane herself.

Did you ask for the Doobie Snack special???

SXO792

Yeah, that was funny.Funny thing is she had no idea we were the ones out there.

L8r

The year after I was "busted" in operation rockcut I was walking cuts in Musquiz and was approaced by the Warden (did not get his name). He asked for my ID and hunting license, then looked at it for a minute and said "Lance Benton, where have heard your name before?"
I said "I was arrested last year in Rockcut"
He said "I had nothing to do with that" gave me my ID back and left to keep hunting...

Very nice guy, but he did not seem to want anything to do with that situation.

Lance
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Herp Conservation Unlimited

I was walking up the road between cuts a couple of years ago when he stopped me and let me know it was illegal to hunt for snakes in his county. I corrected him. He then said if I did not leave he would arrest me for trespassing. I said "on a public road?" and laughed at him a little bit. He then said the judge would take his side because he hates snake hunters to.

I kept hunting anyways, and I also found a nice light phase earlier that night... Whipped it out for a BP agent one of the two times they stopped to talk with me.

Later as I went through the BP checkpoint I saw that agent I whipped it out for and he wanted to know how to find them also.... With any luck I made a herper out of him

Lance
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Herp Conservation Unlimited

The Marathon south 385 checkpoint agents have always been interested in the snakes we have collected.

Did find a sledge hammer in a crevice out on 190 E. of Iraan. Rusted head, weathered handle. No doubt been there awhile.
Also found a 14" rusted crescent wrench inside another crack across the road.

Eric Haug and I made a trip out west last July and managed to hit Black Gap on a full moon. I believe that night everything was suicidal. We left about 12:30 a.m. and animals were just throwing themselves under the truck. By the time we got to the bp checkpoint we had hit 10 or 11 rabbits and probably 9 or 10 of the little night hawks( I don't know what they are actually called.) It had gotten so ridiculous that we couldn't stop laughing. I know its not funny to kill animals but it was just crazy. Tears in eyes we were within sight of the checkpoint when I stated that if I hit something else I would cry. No sooner I said that and bam! Jackrabbit! I mean dead on lifted the passenger side of the truck off the ground. When we pulled up to the check point Eric and I were laughing so hard they made us get out of the truck and searched it. We had to explain what was so hilarious and explain what we had been doing. They asked if we had caught anything interesting and let us on our way shaking their heads at us the whole time.

Chris Drake