Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in the East SF Bay Area. I would like to do some herping, but don't have a lot of time to spend doing it! I am going to look and photograph, not collect. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to start? BTW, I'm not asking you to reveal your secret hotspots, etc., I just need a starting point. Feel free to email me privately if you desire. Thank you for the help,

JB

I grew up in east Oakland but my parents then moved to Corvallis, Oregon in 1949 when I was 15. Of course most of my haunts have been over-run with development or degraded. I use to hike up Dimond Canyon and find a number of species of herps. I suggest that the one good place still left might be Tilden Regional Park. You could drive over to the Santa Cruz Mts. where a good number of species can be found. But of course, starting from scratch and not being familiar with these areas is a big handicap.

Good luck, Richard F. Hoyer

my grandparents live in that area. Once I visited them in February, and I went into a little canyon with lots of live oaks. I found some slender salamanders, and the neatest thing in the world...a painted ensatina. It was a indigo/purple salamander, with a bright orange underside, bright yellow eyes and elliptical pupils, about an inch long. it ws not a wild, or pristine place, and the ensatina was under an old tire...start checking around little canyons, you might discover your own secret hot spots! I was about 12 at the time, and I couldnt find any matching pictures of the ensatina that I found, and I was convinced that I had discovered a new species of salamander, until I found out there are many subspecies of ensatinas, and the bay area ones are sometimes very colorful. GOOD LUCK
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- Happy herping!

KE