I headed out to the Trans-Pecos on June 30, and got home July 7. Slow hunting, but mostly good weather conditions in the uplands around Alpine and Ft. Davis. Quite a few alterna found, especially for that early in the season there (most snakes there seem to be caught later, after the area gets more rain).
June 30 - stopped by in Del Rio to visit friends (Shannon, Aaron, Ric) . . . hunted from Langtry (mostly too hot) to Sanderson. Found a few snakes around Sanderson (longnose, hooknose, atrox) and some DORs.
July 1 - headed on to Alpine . . . hunted S and W of town. Found 1 longnose, 1 suboc, 1 night snake, 1 Tiger Salamander. I was told that if I'd have gotten there an hour or two earlier (while the road was still wet) that I'd have seen dozens of sals in the area where I caught the one.
July 2 - it rained from the Davis to the Bend . . . so I went and hunted the River. Mistake. Even though it was wet, it was still hot. 88 at 11:30 pm, 85 at 12:30, etc. I was 2 glossies and a ground snake.
July 3 - decided to hunt high in the Davis. Cruised a little-hunted road I like which is good for seeing snakes AOR . . . usually. When I didn't see anything moving, went to hunting cuts. It was crowded at the Big Observatory cut, so I went lower. at 11:08, caught an alterna on a cut near Ft. Davis. Nice adult female, probably just laid eggs, just finished eating a crevice spiny. Very cleanly marked for a Davis. Brownish snake, black primaries with orange leaking through. Also saw a hooknose and a blackhood snake. Dead lepidus in Musquiz. Longnose west of Alpine really late.
July 4 - back up to the Davis - 1 hypsiglena on a cut, a couple of DORs
July 5 - hunted west of Alpine all night - 1 DOR Pituophis, 1 DOR atrox
July 6 - back up to the Davis - 1 lepidus on the observatory cut that I couldn't tell what it was - it was way up near the top, so I found a way to climb up (I thought it might have been an alterna) . . . still thought it was an alterna when I found it in the grass, only realized it wasn't when I felt KEELED scales and let go - lucky its head was back in a grass tussock. Also saw a nice Blacktail on the Obs cut, and a night snake near the Prude Ranch.
July 7 - headed home, found a depressingly DOR big adult female Mexican Hognose east of Marathon and a DOR Whipsnake east of Sanderson.
Snakes caught by others while I was out:
2 west of Alpines (we had originally counted 3, but one rumor proved false) and another 2 caught before I got there
4 South of Alpines (one was first thought to be from 18 south, but later confirmed to be from 6 by another hunter who observed the snake being caught)
possibly one other Davis - I heard of one being caught at the Observatory, but since I never heard a name or details, I'll regard it as a rumor
1 277
2 Sandersons (I'll let others give details on these, one is a good story)
1 Langtry
Troy
