My wife, Trudy and I set off for southern South Carolina for the weekend and had hoped for some nice weather to meet up with family, shop ,eat, and even get in a little herping…
The weather was great but a little too cool at night for any cruising except for maybe some amphibs but in the end we didn’t go for that.
Originally, a few others herpers were going to meet up also but some had last minute schedule changes and/or I just couldn’t get in touch when in SC. Sorry guys.
Lucky for me, Chuck Saitta was willing to drive up from Lake City and do the driving we needed to search out and find various tin spots and trash piles…You know the routine…
Anyway, on Friday Chuck and I left Trudy to shop and sight see while we cruised the areas around Jasper, Hampton,and Charleston counties for a spell.
Without any hesitation we headed right across the street from the gas station to an empty lot dotted with boards and tin as well as other junk.
The first piece of metal yielded this racer which I neglected to get a decent shot of..
I wasn’t ready! (is this a good omen? Or bad one?)
Well, a few minutes later while flipping some plywood and tin I saw Chuck turning a piece…
I quickly noticed a familiar looking animal but it still surprised me.
Here’s a photo of Chuck and our first little beauty …
a Jasper county Crotalus horridus..
Other shots..
Leaving that spot and heading on I saw this dor that turned out to be a heartbreaker for us.
e.hognose
I just don’t see them alive that often anymore.
After a while of cruising north of that spot we checked some roads and whatever junk we thought might produce….Not much in the way of great finds but we were racking up a small number of species with …
Broad headed skinks…..
in situ
posed
SC slimy sal…
And a racer or two….
I also flipped this little rough earth snake from under a small board.
We decided to hit the lunch wagon but there was a spot or two Chuck had remembered
(I’m damn glad he did).. so... lunch would have to wait for a few minutes, right?
At the end of the road we found some boards and tin etc.
While flipping almost everything there I saw Chuck quickly replace this piece of tin
he had in his hands to the ground and utter “whoa, two huge canebrakes!”
“Hold on while I get a camera” I said….
Here’s what he uncovered
pushing 5'
about 4'
I hadn’t really expected to see any canebrakes this trip but was beside myself to see three in just over an hour or two…..
Driving back to the sammich shop, we saw a few nice pieces of tin where I saw a pair of SC slimy sals..
Then as Chuck flipped another piece across from me I noticed a small snake strike instantly and so did Chuck. When I saw him reach down I knew he had found this..
SC cornsnake (in shed)
O.K. now we could get lunch…
After that we cruised a lot of miles of back roads and came up with a few more locals…
This greenish rat snake had a full belly and definitely had a green head!
A marbled salamander was deep inside a piece of carpet.
Under some tin in a field we saw this e. glass lizard,
a few ground skinks, a 6 lined racerunner and a couple of racers.
Saturday was much less eventful but we did mark some dandy tin spots for the future.
Heading back to the motel we stopped at a billboard that produced this s. toad
And this big ol’ rat snake..
The afternoon was spent visiting and walking with family at a nature preserve where we saw…
Yellow bellied turtles
A gator or three
Some nesting egrets
W/her prize
Bullfrogs
And these sparring green anoles.
A great time thanks to Trudy.
And thanks to Chuck S. for his snake sense and willingness to drive all those miles.
:Mark
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Surrender Dorothy!
