Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My little urban wilderness area (160 acres) turned up:

2 Western Ribbon snakes
1 Diamondback Water snake
2 Three-toed Box turtles
3 Ornate Box turtles
3 Ground skinks
n Juvenile bullfrogs (n is somewhere in the hundreds, maybe thousands)

Two interesting things about this excursion:
1) A pair of box turtles, one Ornate and the other Three-toed, were found together only a foot or two apart.
2) The Diamondback Water snake (N. Rhombifer, 30" measured) is the first one I've seen in this area in about two years. They used to be abundant. (Some may recall my posts from several months ago, on the Water Snake forum, about the apparent disappearance of both Nerodia species from this particular area. I still haven't seen a plainbelly [or blotched, N. erythrogaster transversa] there in over two years; they also used to be abundant. Either they go in cycles, or the recent proliferation of carp in the featured lake - or some other predator - has cut back the Nerodia populations.)
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MichaelB

Would love to see them if you took any. Sounds like you had a nice time.
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Tim

I did have a good time - but forgot the dad-gum camera! Doh!! But I'm venturing back out there today - with my camera this time - to see what else I can find.
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MichaelB

Nice michael. One thing I might suggest to make it easier to read, put TMTC instead of n. Most herpers know what you mean and so you don't have to explain it...of course you can just use n by all means. I want some pics too. You should see all of the rhombifera down here...we found a ball of them this summer...one was blue-green. Amazing snakes. Keep it coming with the Nerodia...best snakes around Andy
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Andy Maddox
Houston Herp Key
The Reptizone

Who are you who can say it's ok to live through me? Alice In Chains