Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I finally got a chance to get out in the field and I'm glad I did. 2 of the 3 snakes I found were firsts for me. I'm really intruiged with the ringneck snake. I haven't heard of too many people in Ca. finding them. The Yellow bellied-racer suprisingly has a good temperment. Most of the racers around here are usually quite aggressive.
The nightsnake seems a little lethargic, may be in need of a good meal after coming out of hibernation.

Been out road cruising a few times lately and have not had much luck. Is it just me, or have the nights been a little cooler than usual for late May?

Heres the ringneck....

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That ringneck is neat looking.I'd love to see those 3 all in the same day.
jeff

Awesome snakes. I would love to find any of those! Cool ringneck. Where about where you? I hear of a lot of people finding night snakes where I am, but so far, its the only local snake I have yet to find.

I would say it has been unusually cold. This time last year nights were so hot we weren't finding snakes on the road until nearly 11 pm.

Yea, before last year I hadn't found a Night snake either. Since then I have found 3, including one tonight! Also found a juvenile Red Coachwhip, a first for this year.

Yea, this time last year was a lot warmer. It doesn't bother me though, I think the cooler temps will keep bringing out some of the not so common (at least for me) snakes, ie: Rosy's, Night snakes, Ringnecks, etc....

I live in Rancho Cucamonga and all of my finds this season have been within about 10 or so miles from my house.
You're near Victorville if I remember correct right? Any luck with finding Mojaves' yet? I have yet to come across one and hope to change that this year!!
Ryan

Not exactly Victorville, but Lancaster. Its west of Victorville by an hour or so. I would expect the same kind of snakes in Victorville, but I have yet to hunt there. If you come to Lancaster, you can't miss the mojaves! Lots of good roads for them just 10 miles out of town.

Oh and about the longnose (forgot to add this in the other post) I only saw one adult last year and a few babies, seen several this year already, one of the more common snakes we have seen so far. The local only snake I'm missing from road cruising this year (therefore meaning I am excluding dirunal masticophis species ect.) would be the shovel nose (saw one last year), oh and I guess the night snake but I'm starting to wonder if I will ever find one nearby. There are still tons of species I would like to see from all over So Cal, but I have trouble finding roads and its not worth the drive for nothing. It took several trips to get down the right roads to hunt locally, couldn't find more than a snake a night for quite some time, now I don't know how I ever missed them. Tried whitewater last year, didn't find anything I couldn't find at home. Tried another road (don't recall what it was) but only found one DOR, I think I was on the wrong stretch, was looking for sidewinders.

Few interesting twists this year speaking of proximity to home, found a DOR gopher a mile and a half from home while heading out for cruising. Never would have expected that one. I also recently moved a few miles away, old roommates called from the old house with a snake in garage, turned out to be a 6' gopher, I've never seen one so big out here. Backyard was large and desert habitat, with whiptails, night lizards, and cottontails, but I never spotted a snake. It was really close to a major road, just about a square mile of spaced out houses with large horse property. Couldn't believe the size of this thing, and just 2 weeks after I moved!

well, i can agree with you on the fact that its been a cool spring so far...even though i am on the opposite coast talking about north carolina. a friend of mine does road-cruising snake research in the south carolina sandhills and around the 12th of may we had 4 cars out cruising all night and got a total of 29 snakes, including 2 DOR's. there was an unusually high number of copperheads that night, and i started talking to the main guy about it and he said that basically since we've had such a cold spring, everything has been pushed back a month. that might not hold for everything really, but now that temperatures are slowly getting up there, things should kick in. good luck, and nice snakes you ran across there.