Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was looking through some of my coachwhip photos from the past spring, and two of them were decent for a .gif......

Shane
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Lifelist

That specimen is about as black as they get. I am in the process of aquiring a pair from Kansas to breed next year as part of a breeding cooperative.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

were are some good places in ok. to find coachwhips i live in ok. and ive been having trouble finding them ive only found 2

Hi beladona, coachwhips are a common snake in many of Oklahoma's habitats, particularly in the central and western part of the state. Generally, you want to avoid wet, lowland areas and bleak agricultural expanses, though they will still pop up occasionally in those habitats. The best habitats are open grassland/savannah in the western half of the state, where you will see them quite frequently zipping across the road. Farther east, the best bet is the myriad of edge habitats created where forest, field, grassland, agriculture, etc. converge. Anywhere they occur, flipping artificial cover or limestone flags is one of the best ways to get your hands on them.

Shane
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Lifelist

thanks for the info and were do you live? im in bixby do you no any good tin flipping spots at any parks or lakes? i would love to find some timbers or agkistrodons to photograph

I'm in Bryan county, on the TX border. I checked out Bixby on Google Earth, and it looks like you've got some great herping areas nearby. Timbers are probably common in the wooded areas to the southeast of Bixby, and there is some sort of lake that may be public. Those woodland pasture interfaces out there should be great for a lot of species. It looks like there's a swampy, wooded area just south of town......should be loaded with copperheads, and probably cottonmouths as well. It appears that there is a junkyard just east of town along the river---->>>artificial cover, and the scrub habitat there looks great for coachwhips.
If you haven't done so, I recommend you download Google Earth, as it's a great tool to search for herping areas. Tin is nice to flip, but it isn't a necessary herping ingredient........though it sure makes coachwhips a helluva lot easier to grab!

Shane
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Lifelist

man thank you for doing that! thats going to help me out alot because im new to bixby well thanks alot

No worries.......that's just the immediate area! If you do get permission to herp that swampy, wooded area to the south of town, let me know if you see cottonmouths or pygmy rattlesnakes....both of those species are hit-or-miss around here.......common where they occur, but absent from many areas of seemingly great habitat.

Shane
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Lifelist

There are a lot of areas around Bixby (especially the park by the river) that I would like to check out maybe in early August when I am on break from school.

Stay in touch. I am also with the Tulsa Herp Club which meets at the zoo 1st Thursday of every month. I have been hearing of a lot of Pygmy Rattlesnakes found between Bixby and Olkmulgee.

Todd
tulsaherper

And on another note, if you do get hooked up the Tulsa Herp Club, they do some amazing frog walks in secluded areas of Mohawk Park.

Hasn't yielded any cottons, coppers, or rattlers (nothing venemous has ever been found in Mowhawk) but we have found plenty of various frogs/toads plus ribbon snakes, brown (DeKay's) snakes, rough green snakes, blotched water snakes, and recently an eastern racer.

Todd
tulsaherper