Well, after nearly 2 years of planning this trip, I finally had the opportunity go visit my good friend, Nathan Wells, and herp in East Texas. Nathan surely didn’t disappoint with everything he had lined up for us to do. He sure knew where to find all the snakes I was hoping to see. It was obvious to me that he was an incredible field herper and probably one of the best snake guides to go herping with.
Before we get into the snakes, let me just say how kind the Wells family is for letting me stay with them for the weekend. Nathan’s wife, Christina, is just as nice as she can be. Makes you wonder how a guy like Nate could land her, doesn’t it?
Christina went out of her way to buy us everything we’d need for our herpfest weekend. As one of many examples, Christina bought me an array of toiletry items to use, such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc. and left a few nice magazines in the bathroom for me to read and feel at home. Nathan added his special touch and added some hand lotion and a Shape magazine to the stack Christina left for me. LOL Christina also made a delicious gnocchi dinner for us Friday after a long day of herping.
Now, on to our adventure.
I arrived Friday morning and Nate picked me up at the airport. We headed straight out to some spots Nate knows of in Montgomery County.
At our first spot, after only a few flips, I found what I had come to see. Louisiana Milk!! Can you tell how happy I was to find this?
This is where I found it.
Here is a close up…even though it was in shed, it was a beautiful find!
After we hit that spot, we were driving to the next spot and Nate jumped out of the car to find this guy.
At our next spot, we found the prize of the trip! What a beauty. Here it is, just how we found it under some tin.
I usually don’t like to use flashes when I take pictures of snakes but the photos with natural light weren’t picking up how yellow this snake was due to the darkness in the woods. This picture is most accurate, in my opinion, of what it looked like.
On to the next spot, we found a nice little copperhead. Nate tried to tell me on the phone that the Copperheads in East Texas weren’t as nice as North Carolina, but I don’t know that I agree with that.
Here are a few other shots of things we saw before we hit the next spot
At our next spot, we hit pay dirt again. A beautiful butter milk racer in some tin.
Next we walked a ditch near that tin and Nate found a large yellow bellied water snake. We felt like kids again walking ditches.
As we left this site, I was devastated to see this freshly hit DOR. It was hit from the time we went to the spot and when we left…probably only 30 minutes.
Then on our way back home for our gnocchi, we did some road cruising and found this beauty.
On day two, we decided to hit Brazos County looking for more milks. On our way to the first spot, in Grimes County, we found this fresh DOR. Both of us were psyched to see this…a Texas Corn snake. Unfortunately we were only minutes too late…
Moving on to our first spot, we hit pay dirt again and caught a Coachwhip, Texas rat snake and another copperhead all found under separate piles of tin. Here I am with the Coachwhip
Here is Nate with the TX rat
Sometimes even the best get bitten…
Nate did most of the heavy lifting with the copperheads we found
Then on to the next spot. This was one of my favorite moments of the trip. Nate was doing a U turn to look for the “miracle board” and I saw this along the fence line as he paused and waited to turn.
A giant Texas Rat…pushing 6 feet
Then we made a quick stop in Burleson county and found this beauty by an old farm house. I love the love the low band count on this one.
Unfortunately, this was our next find driving to the next spot. One of the snakes I was looking to find. I was devastated at another fresh DOR…this one a lampropeltis…a speckled king!
At one of our last stops, we found another big Texas rat snake.
Nate took me to some cool places…but in the back of my mind, I wondered what was up with some of these names they use in Texas…
Westward Ho was close to Lick creek…you can be the judge.
Here are our totals for the trip
2 Louisiana Milk snakes
1 buttermilk racer
1 broad banded water snake
3 Texas rat snakes
3 ribbon snakes
4 yellow bellied water snakes
6 copperheads
1 coachwhips
DOR
4 Texas rats
2 buttermilk racers
1 coral snake
1 broad banded water snake
1 Texas corn snake
1 coachwhip
1 speckled kingsnake
All in all, it was a fantastic trip and I look forward to doing it again. For any of you that are fortunate enough to get to herp with Nate, here is my advice…
1. Pack a lot of food with you because Nate will NOT stop to eat once he gets herping on his mind. I had to beg for 2 ½ hours on Saturday to get Nate to stop for lunch!
2. If you have motion sickness, you may want to think twice about riding with Nate. He does more U turns on a herping trip than I do all year…and he never slows down to make the turn.
