Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First the question.

I live in Central PA. State College to be exact. Usually I go to Rothrock Forest to look for various herps. But I don't have too much luck. Last summer (only went atthe end could be my problem)I found:
-Lots of american toads (i mean lotsthe forest up there is full of them)
-various frogs, bullfrog, green frog, and a spring peeper.
-lots of salamanders, there are a few streams that start up there and the water is really clean.
-finally the only reptile was a single 4-5 foot black rat snake, he got away too fast so I didn't even get pics.

My goal is to find as many reptiles as possible and photograph them. The non venomous ones I would like to actually catch and photograph up close. The rattlesnakes I want to get pics of but I wantto keep my distance (obviously).

Finally, I would like to geta pic of a grey tree frog, they are supposed to be really common around here, but look as I may, I found none.

Book Recommendation:

"Amphibians and Reptiles of Pennsylvania and the northeast" by Arthur C Hulse, C. J. McCoy, Ellen J. Censky.

I found this book at Barnes and Noble in State College. It gives a 2-3 Page write up about every species found in PA. Includes Identification , habitate, mating sizes, details distribution maps that includethe autors finds marked on the map. There are also many plates atthe beginning of the book. The book is physically larger than the peterson's guide, but I feel it has a lot more information in it.

This summer I plan to get out earlier and havemore luck finding a lot of pennsylvania herps. (Well I hope atleast)

Thanks for reading my long winded post.

Joe Conklin
joeconklin@gmail.com

the best way to find grey tree frogs is by listening to there calls, find a site and identify it then, at night when it is raining track them by there calls. usually I hear them start callin around the end of may they don't seem to breed as early as other frogs. thanks for the book recomendation i'll have to get it. Ive been looking for a good book on more north eastern species. I'm in NY but most of the species will be here too I would assume. good luck witht the photoing
Wayne

Hey,

The book is pretty good, I got it a couple years ago for $60. Alot of the info in the book is old and outdated, and alot has changed since the book was published, but it's still a good book and I'd say it's worth getting.

About the gray tree frogs...I have yet to see one...

Mike
Michael's Place

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Michael's Place has updated better caresheets
Helmz777@aol.com
www.freewebs.com/mikesnake

Drive along the roads after a warm rain and you might have some luck with snakes, I did when I was there 4 years ago... got skunked in that area last year though.
I talked with the Ranger there last fall and the timber population in that area is quite small if still there, he only saw 3 dors this year and all were outside of rothrock. For the treefrog best bet would be around the pond near the campground in July or possibly near the swimming area.

Dan

Thanks for the recommendation. I'm always looking for a book with more detail of were specific species occur within the state. I live in jersey but go trout fishing in central pa. I see lots of snakes up there. I am a turtle guy and mainly go up there to photograph wood turtles(which i see in incredible numbers). I also see lots of snakes though too. This past summer in 4 trips up there i saw 6 timbers and it wasn't like i was looking for them. I also saw a dead kingsnake i believe, lots of water snakes, and alot of these gray snakes with a band behind there head. I also see lots of leopard frog and red efts. Also this last year I saw a cave salamander which i didn't know occured in PA.

.

Nice you beat me to it.

Cheers,

Chuck Annicell

I'd be really interested in seeing some of your wood turtle pictures. They're one of my favorite sps. We have them here in northern MI but I've only found one. I've recently heard about some promising locations so I'm hoping to be able to photograph some this spring. Please post some pictures if you can.

Thanks,

Andrew

Hey Joe,

I picked up that same book a few months ago and really like it too.

Here in northern Michigan I see quite a few gray treefrogs. The best time is definitely spring, when they're breeding (and trust me, you'll hear them!). I also see them all summer at night clinging to the sides of my house eating moths. Here's a pic of one in my backyard...

http://image30.webshots.com/31/9/68/81/230796881smlwlm_ph.jpg

If you can find a breeding site, late summer is a good time to see the little bright green morphlets. They usually hang around on the cattails for a while before moving upland and stand out well against the brown dead stalks. Here's a picture of one, also from my backyard. This is exactly how I found him/her...

http://image18.webshots.com/18/1/92/10/193319210TUwJLj_ph.jpg

And finally here's one more pic of a bright green individual...

http://image22.webshots.com/23/2/69/31/227826931SESRti_ph.jpg

In my experience the adults are usually gray, but sometimes a green on will turn up. Hence the "versicolor", I guess. Sorry I was only able to post links to photos. I have a hard time posting pics from webshots.

Hopefully this helped. I haven't done any PA herping but it seems like you have some great species.
Good luck next spring!

Andrew

I know this is kind of an older thread, but hopefully you'll get this...lol.

I agree that the call of a grey tree frog is unmistakable and the best way to find it is to listen.

With that said, go to www.enature.com and search by zip code (the ZipGuides section). You can listen to calls of all the frogs in your area. I live in Armstrong County (and up in Erie while in school - I'm still a student at Penn State for the next 2 months or so) and I did a very similar project last year. I identified the majority of things on sight alone because I wanted to familiarize myself with some of the herps I didn't normally see in person, but sometimes all I could do was hear something and I'd use that site to help ID it. Good luck and keep me posted!