Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
A friend and I went out herping aroudn ym house in the San Bernardino mtns today-(hes nto aherper,justw anted to hang out,which is great,they dont tell anyone about spots) but we hiked from 1-6:30 or so,not untill 5pm did we see our first snake.I had found a sub adult rubber boa male,then around 5:30 or so and a few feet from that rubber boa,I found an adult zonata,pretty average for the area.Then on our way back to the car,I was looking through these rocks,and found a nice smaller zonata.My friedn was watching me and said to lift the rock in front of him,I told him to hold up and he lifted it,and there was an adult zonata and 2 rubber boas,I was so amazed.By the time i got my camera out of my pocket one rubber burrowed into the ground so the pic only came out with 1 zonata and 1 rubber,so that was 3 rubbers and 3 zonatas in just over an hour.Then after looking through the rocks a little bit more at that spot,we found 2 more rubber boas,I was laughing so hard and my friend was asking me why,I told him,cause its crazy,snakes everywhere.We left after that casue it was close to 7pm then,gettign a bit chill out,but once i get pics uploaded,I'll post them up,the adult zonata under the rock with the rubber baos had the brightest orange color i've seen.And the smaller zonata had some red scales in one of its white bands,they were both really nice looking.Best part was,you could tell noone had ever lifted the rocks there.For the first tiem today actually,I came across rocks that had been lifted already this year,but that was a spot not too far from the road and a spot people know about i guess,I didnt even look through those ones,thats why hiking over 4 miles gets you where you want to be,again,my favorite day herping in probably ever-(also,that ties my record for 3 zonatas in a day,i was hoping to see 1 more just to get that 4,but I aint complaining at all!) pics soon,
jeff

That is absolutely AWSOME, that is incredible. Way to go. This is a great time of year! Makes me want to get out and check some spots!
Zack

Good job Jeff on the zonatas. On a side note, try proof reading your post before submitting it, I can barely read parts of it, LOL.

Allan's herp blog
Link

Yeah,I was reading after I posted it,and thought, "damn, people are gonna think I'm stupid as hell",it was late last night when i posted it,but it was pretty bad,lol.Talk to you later,
jeff

Looking forward to the pics. My best day in the San Bernardinos I only found one zonata and I had to crawl on my hands and knees through chapparell, this was after getting frustrated finding nothing but Rubber Boas at the most well known spot up there. I didn't even know if there was any rocks where I was going I just figured nobody else is gonna be desparate enough to do this just to see what was behind this row of trees I saw down the mountain. The rocks were very sparse and actually completly covered by chapparell but there was a zonata there.

Aaron,
This spot was also far into the woods,but it wasnt an out cropping of rocks,but instead,a bunch of fkat rocks,no huge rocks close to them,and very isolated-(far from other rock piles in the area) it was a fun spot to find.I was gonna go out today and look around,buts hot today,and i kind of feel like doign some road cruising tonight.I'll try to get those pics up soon,peace,
Jeff