Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The time is getting close my fellow grey banders, and not a moment to soon I might add. I've been dieing to get out for months now, and I was wondering where everyone plans to go for their first night this season. my vote- Juno Road
Eliot Stone
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0.1 Columbian Boa
0.1 Spotted Python
and always looking for more!

Juno will probably be a good bet. Generally speaking they come out first in the lower elevations in the early spring. Good luck. One year we found a screamer male dark phase blairs 7 miles south of Bakers Crossing at 3 in the morning on a moonless night with a stiff southeast wind. One reason why this locale is so good is the animal life there. There seems to be more wildlife at night on that road than any other I've hunted in the last fifteen years. I think the fact that the road parallels a long stretch of the Devils River, coupled with a lot of vertical topography, is what helps to support a huge wildlife population. This road has been our best spot to find Bairds ratsnakes, especially along the river north of the crossing. I've heard of coral snakes having been spotted on Juno road, so be careful before you pick up any annulata. I'll be there in June during the dark of the moon with my three sons. We catch one grayband for every 70-75 hours of hunting. We feel fortunate because some of our herping asssociates haven't scored yet after weeks of searching. We are going to try some novel approaches to find graybands this year. A recent post about spraying cuts with lizard scent intrigues me. What aboutleaving lizards with fishline on cuts? I'm checking to make sure there's no problem with fish and game in using this manner of "baiting". What about splashing a cut with several gallons of water to simulate precipitation? If you or others have any thoughts about the ethicality or likelihood of success with these finding techniques, let me know.

MSDDS

What is the earliest you have collected alterna? My brother collected two, April 23 and April 25 in Black Gap in the 70's. My earliest in the east was first week in May on Juno and second week of May on 118.

was south of Bakers in 1990.

BTW, this has to be Rick Green on the other end of this line,
how the hell are ya?

Joe Forks

Hey Joe, I am great, hope you are the same.I have't seen you since the 80's. April 19th, kinda makes you want to start packing dosen't it? You can email me at rickyjgreen@aol.com. It would be good to talk to you again.

Chris Reimann, Brian Williams and myself came upon this one clinging to life on 277 in '02. I believe it was the first one *reported* on this forum that year...

Andrew

How about trying at the end of this month by turning rocks? It can be very productive. Possibly more so than watching rock cuts all night.

Paul Lynum

You could be right, we took a trip to Val Verde Co. and Crockett Co. the day after Xmas {just to get away} and in a couple of days found a Bairds in the rocks and a baby atrox crossing the dirt rd. N. of Pandale about mid afternoon.

It's worth a try if you're willing to give it a shot. I think Jeff Davis county (Especially west of Alpine) would be the best spot. I have not tried it myself but, I have found the other subspecies in the mexicana group under rocks in the field. Alternas should be no different.

Paul Lynum