Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Any of you guys out there ever do any collecting for coastals or kings in the Southern Md area.Found one last week,will make a nice addition to the collection,I posted a picture of it on the photo gallery.

Great looking Coastal and a nice find. Whats the locale, St.Mary's?

J.D.

Calvert Co., I found this one road riding. Somebody else commented to me that this one was a St.Mary's coastal and were suprised when I told them it was from Calvert.I have lived and collected herps here in Southern Md for over 20 years and I can tell you there is no difference in the St. Mary's compared to the Calvert or even Charles counties. I have found mutts in all of these counties as well as finding screamers in all of these areas.

Diggler what method do you use to find coastals ?
BTW I have a good arrowhead spot in Charles Co if you want it.

I collected herps in the field since 1982 and kept a county road map as a log so to say for most of Southern Maryland,I made note of all road finds and field finds for all Coastals, Kings, Copperheads, Corns and most other species.In my opinion road riding used to be the easiest way if you knew the right roads and had the time, (Time is the key word here, MANY hours cruising the same roads) but its really hard to use this method these days because of the population boom in this area. Searching trash piles for me was the most productive, just alot more footwork. Sean.

I was on an amphibian site that said less amphibians/reptiles every yr in MD due to more human construction/habitat destruction. I hope you breed it. They are great looking snakes and one day may not be found.

Lia

Hey Lia, It's very true about the habitat destruction here in Maryland, especially Calvert Co. its the fastest growing county in the state. I used to collect herps and then later breed herps for the reptile trade and worked with coastals in the mid eighties and became familiar with them in captivity and in the wild, with some success breeding them. I have been totally out of the reptile scene for the last several years but am ready to do something again but for a different reason(not for profit). Plan on keeping/ breeding exlusivly wild caught coastals.I am allready in the process of setting up a few dozen "microhabitats" to help me collect these guys and should have a good breeding colony built up in a couple of years.

Its good that your going to breed them. They are great looking snakes and not to mention another snake that one day will be rare in its area if found at all.
Around 10 years ago when I was a kid. I used to go to this field woodland area were we would find corn snakes now its a shopping center and corn snakes are gone.
Though we still have them in the state Coastal plains milksnakes are not as common in MD and may one day dissapear all together.
Good Luck.
Lia

Not since the early 1990's, when I used to get out a few times/year in Calvert County back then. However, my interest was recently renewed when I acquired some CB 2003 snakes (corn and coastal plain milk snakes) for family pets, and I may try looking again sometime this summer. How far north have you looked in Calvert? Ever look in PG County? My experience searching for any/all herps in southern MD is limited to AA, Calvert and PG Co's. Unfortunately I never found a coastal, but had luck with most other species. I am going to try building nice custom tanks this fall, and I would like to hear any suggestions you may have (you mentioned in another post that you will be trying to establish microhabitats for a group of coastals for your breeding interests). I can be reached off-list at jugbay@hotmail.com if you have any suggestions for preparing a practical but natural setting for maintaining the captive coastals. I agree that the biggest issue facing most wildlife in our region these days is the unbelievable pace of "progress", and resulting loss of habitat due to mostly residential development. Many of the areas around us now in southern MD are hardly recognizable from 10-20 years ago, it's really disgusting.

JS

I found a DOR in Huntingtown, I have really not looked any further North than that,for coastals that is. Southern Md, Eastern shore,and the tidewater Va area are about the extent of my searches for temporalis. I'm going to stick close to home(Calvert, St. Mary's) as far as what I'm trying to collect now. Tha microhabitats I mentioned in a previous post are actually habitat to attract coastals(organized trash piles to simply put it) on private property throughout So. Md.Sean.