Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Things started off slow here with cooler than normal weather. I managed to get a day off work to check some sites in the western Piedmont/foothills area on 4/9. Yielded the usual suspects...

Moving some rock from the ditch beside my house on 4/18, I stumbled into this girl. I believe she is the same one I saw there last September. Moved her to the driveway while my son grabbed my camera. Took her back for an "in-situ" shot, but she bolted for one of her holes before I could snap the photo...

Catawba County L.g.g.

Things have been moving for a month. Managed to find a nice pair of scarlet kings under the first piece of cover I checked. Then found another just a few minutes afterward. (Posed on the stump for photo...couldn't get them to stay still otherwise!)

This one was especially dark for the area. Notice the black head.

with temps around 73 degrees produced a DOR hognose, more racers than I would like to remember, a spotted turtle, and these beauties. (Last one's a ribbon, crappy pic, but had to post it. We don't see these in the western part of the state.)

20 snakes, 8 different species so far this year. 2009 looks promising so far.

Michael

Great pics! Must be awesome to be able to flip scarlet kings

Dan Eby

That's for sure. Something I have learned about flipping is that timing is everything. There are really small windows, within the year and within the day, that you can find things under tin and other cover. It took years of random flipping and finding nothing but racers to figure that out.

Thanks for looking,
Michael

Where exactly in the foothills/Catawba did you go? I've been living here 8 months and I can't seem to see snakes. Great photos BTW.

Len

Nice stuff to be found in the area...Catawba, Burke, Lincoln, Iredell, etc. I find around 150 snakes a year and at least half of those are found in the counties listed above.

Just get out away from the cities and into the rural areas and start looking for abandoned barns and places where people have thrown out trash, furniture, boards, etc. Something I did years ago was look for abandoned properties for sale with barns and called the seller and asked permission.

Just do not climb fences or go on posted property (tresspass), do not put tin or boards on someone's property (littering), do not take tin or boards from someone's property (stealing). I have never had problems with anyone in the area, but I am very careful how I represent myself to people out there.

All snakes photographed here were found in Catawba or surrounding counties. Good Luck!

Michael

Those are some awesome finds! My parents live in Denver, but I haven't found much on my visits. And yes, it is very, very important you gain permission to go on the properties that are out of town....

How would you feel about meeting up and checking some spots? I am going to school in Boone now, but come down every now and then. FYI, the salamanders here are amazing.

There are some places in your direction that I would really like to check out. Do you ever find Eastern Milks in Watauga or surrounding counties? How common are they?

Thanks,
Michael