Reptile & Amphibian Forums

These four beauties hatched out this year. First time breeding alterna for me.

Dam

Sire

DNS Reptiles

Thanks for posting the pics!
I really like the second hatchings, nice blairi-phase with broad black bands...very nice!

Are your breeders look like typical Eagle`s Nest alternas? I remember some posts with very dark to jetblack alternas from that localotie.

yours

Michael

>>Thanks for posting the pics!
>>I really like the second hatchings, nice blairi-phase with broad black bands...very nice!
>>
>>Are your breeders look like typical Eagle`s Nest alternas? I remember some posts with very dark to jetblack alternas from that localotie.
>>

That area produces a great variety........
Most are light colored blairs like the sire and alterna phase like the dam.....

I'm not saying there aren't dark ones there but most dark ones come from near Sanderson, down in Black Gap and over in the Xmas Mts.
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

The adults I have were produced by Ric Blair. I have know idea what generation from the wild caughts they are though.
Dave

>>The adults I have were produced by Ric Blair. I have know idea what generation from the wild caughts they are though.
>>Dave

They are all nice Dave...congrats!
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

Actually John, in the wild most Eagle's Nest graybands are medium to dark Blair's with muddy orange. Occasionally a very light or very dark Blair's with bright orange will be found there and alterna phases are extremely rare there.

In captivity light Blair's and alterna's of Eagle's Nest locality are pretty common but that's only because most of them descend from bloodlines that originated with atypical wild specimens.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

>>Actually John, in the wild most Eagle's Nest graybands are medium to dark Blair's with muddy orange. Occasionally a very light or very dark Blair's with bright orange will be found there and alterna phases are extremely rare there.
>>
>>In captivity light Blair's and alterna's of Eagle's Nest locality are pretty common but that's only because most of them descend from bloodlines that originated with atypical wild specimens.
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>>www.hcu-tx.org/

Thanks Aaron,

I agree with what you stated about the ones in captivity. I was basing my reply on that without even thinking of all the dark blairs found near that Canyon....

The only Eagle's Nests (collected by others) that I've seen were light colored blairs. But those "Langtry" alterna have a rather variable ground color for sure and almost always blairs (like you said also).

After looking through some more photos (since I never found any myself...lol) I tend to agree.....Wild Eagle's Nest Alterna typically have medium gray to dark gray gound color.

There's a new moon next weekend btw...Wish I could go out West and find some for myself....lol
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...

Eagle's Nest does seem to have a bit more variation than most other parts of Langtry, probably because stuff filters in from the creek, but they're mostly Blair's. Sometimes they find the super dark Blair's with bright orange and stark white highlites, those are my favorite, they can look as good as the Sanderson's.

Very few alterna phase anywhere in the Langtry area. I only know of one that Dan Johnson caught at Eagle's Nest. It was a medium gray with wide(for an alterna phase) black bands. And another that a friend of mine caught right near Langtry, it was a screamer, super light gray with narrow black bands, alternates and a few narrow but really bright orange slits. I think there was at least one more alterna phase found at Eagle's Nest but I can't remember any specifics on it.

I do hope you, Shannon and I can coordinate a trip next year where we are all there at the same time.
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www.hcu-tx.org/

Those are SWEET! the parents are outstanding too. have the hatchlings ate for you yet?

Those are very nice. I really like that first one.
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I like the first one best even though the banding on the second one looks damn near perfect.

Great looking hatchlings. Let us know how they do for you.
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Kent

Sweet assortment, Dave!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Wow that's a beautiful bunch of Grays! Nice work.