West Texas Report 6/17/04-6/20/04

6/17/04
My good friend Rob Klockman, of College Station, and I embarked on another quick run out to west Texas. We left Houston around 5:30 p.m. and headed west through San Antonio, arriving in Brackettville nearly 5 hours later. We drove north through Kinney County into Edwards county and cruised west making our way over to U.S. Hwy 277.
On the way:

1 unid (DOR), Fayette Co.
1 adult Crotalus atrox (AOR), Kinney Co.
1 adult Crotalus m. molossus (DOR), Val Verde Co.

Once on U.S. Hwy 277 we drove north up to Loma Alta walking and shining cuts along the way. We ran into my good friend from back home Dave Doherty and his father. They said that overall the night had been slow, only finding an E.g. emoryi. Moving on, we drove north and south along U.S. Hwy 277 until 4 a.m. before heading west towards Comstock. Fatigue finally settled in and we decided to turn off at the picnic area west of the Pecos River for a few hours of rest.

2 sub-adult Crotalus atrox (AOR), Val Verde Co.

6/18/04
We woke up early and hit the road again. Our original plan was to stay in Del Rio and have lunch with Dave and his father that afternoon in Mexico but, we decided to skip out on lunch and continue west, trying our luck down on the river road. After a few hours of driving we ran into yet another friend and fellow herper from back home, Brandon Bowers. We chatted for a while and then made our way through Marathon and into Alpine. Seeing that the weather was warming up and the snakes were on the move we drove into Marfa, headed north up to Fort Davis, and finally down into Alpine again.

1 adult Masticophis f. testaceus (AOR), Brewster Co.
1 sub-adult Elaphe g. emoryi (DOR), Brewster Co.
1 adult Masticophis t. girardi (DOR), Brewster Co.
1 juvenile Pituophis c. sayi (DOR), Presidio Co.

Exhausted, we finally checked into a hotel in Alpine a little after 12:00. That evening we headed south along Hwy 118 towards Study Butte. Massive thunderstorms were forming to the southwest as we continued on, hopeful that the rain would not put a damper on our night. It wasn’t 40 minutes into our drive that we became engulfed in the worst torrential downpour I have ever witnessed in west Texas. The rain and wind hit hard making it difficult for us to see even the white and yellow lines on the road in front of us. Rob, who was driving, kept his bearings as we continued, destined to find relief on the other side. Finally, after 20 minutes or so the storm let up as we came closer to the Christmas Mountains. We drove south through Study Butte, Terlingua, and Lajitas before heading further west along FM 170.

1 adult Masticophis f. testaceus (DOR), Brewster Co.
1 sub-adult Pituophis c. affinis (AOR), Brewster Co. (Beautiful red coloration!)
1 adult Crotalus m. molossus (DOR), Brewster Co.

The rain worsened as the night wore on and after a few passes along the river road we decided to head up north for higher and possibly, drier ground. While driving through Lajitas, we made the mistake of slowing down for another herper and happened to turn around right in front a game warden that was hiding along side the road with his lights off. Obviously suspicious of our driving techniques, he followed us down FM 170. The warden soon backed off as we drove through the newly torn up road near Pepper’s Hill. The previously paved road was now slush and mud due to the constant rain and proved to make driving difficult as we almost lost control, skidding back and forth while going down hill. The warden continued to follow us keeping his distance. Another car headed towards us as we reached the bottom of the hill. We were surprised to see that the vehicle was a second warden, waiting patiently for us to drive past so he could chat with his buddy. We drove off as the wardens conversed and figured that they either felt sorry for us that we had lost control of the car or didn’t want to get wet if they had stopped to talk with us.
We spent the remainder of the evening driving north up to Alpine, stopping to walk the series of roadside cuts in between the two picnic areas along Hwy 118 and the cuts just south of town. The rain seemed to remain with us for most of the night and was on the verge of becoming cold drizzle as we got back to the hotel around 3:00.

1 sub-adult Crotalus atrox (DOR), Brewster Co.
1 adult Hypsiglena t. jani (AOR), Brewster Co.
2 adult Thamnophis m. marcianus (DOR), Brewster Co.
1 adult Barred Tiger Salamander (AOR), Brewster Co. (Very surprising to see!)

6/19/04
The next morning we decided to head back east for our last night of hunting. We were unsure where we would end up that evening but, by the nice numbers of Lampropeltis alterna caught the night before, we figured that luck would be on our sides. We drove through Sanderson and again, ran into Brandon Bowers who gave us the scoop on who caught what and where. As the evening set in we made o