A weekend in Northern Florida

 

One of the top requests in the recent poll (http://fieldventures.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/the-future-of-field-ventures/) was some more tales from the field. Typically, I post my finds at FieldHerpForum.com 3 or 4 times a year, links to which can be found at the “Field Herping Reports” tab at the top of this page. However, I’m between big 100-ish picture forum posts, I’m going to start putting short trip tales on Field Ventures. So, here goes!

 

This past weekend I went north to visit some amigos; Daniel Dye (of FloridaBackyardSnakes.com), Michael Dye and Jake Scott. We’ve recently been looking for Spotted Turtles (Clemmys guttata) in northern Florida, as they are one of my favorite species – Jake found one recently after some serious footwork (check it out here: http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15974 ) and I was ready to see one of my favorite species at the southern edge of its range.

 

The first herp of the trip was actually found while I was driving around, waiting for Daniel to show up at his house. He was running a little late and his place is right fair-smack in the middle of great canebrake habitat. At about 6:30pm I spotted a splash of color moving across the road.

A Eastern Coralsnake (Micrurus fulvius), a species that is always a welcome find, and one that I have encountered embarrassingly few of in my time as a herper. What stunning snakes: though they are pound-for-pound the most venomous of Florida’s snakes, they rarely bite – especially if unmolested.

 

Later in the day I got to meet the newest member of the Dye household, Torrey. She’s a Blackmouth Cur and already extremely smart like most of the other members of her breed.

 

 

After meeting her, we got a move on to Osceola National Forest – mere minutes from Daniel’s house. Unfortunately, we got shut down by rain. Granted, one can usually find something interesting in the rain in southern Florida, but this was accompanied by temps in the 50s; so we headed home, and I walked around a bit to find one of my favorite anurans. That’s right: Spadefeet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That brought us to around 1am, where I happily hit the hay. The next morning we awoke and returned to Osceola. While there we saw some beautiful pitcher plants – only the third carnivorous plant species I’ve had the pleasure of seeing.

 

 

 

And rounded off the trip with a few species of the testudinine persuasion. But, no Spotted Turtles this time. Many times people get saddened by missing out on their goal: I love it when my hunt is unsuccessful – just one more excuse to return and hang out with some good friends.

 

 

The future of Field Ventures

Hello all,

 

 

Well, the semester is winding down and that will mean more posts (and more frequent posts in the near future. More equipment reviews, species profiles, exotic South Florida posts, etc. So, I’m pretty excited about that but there are also a few more things I wanted to mention:

 

 

1.)    If you’re a herper, birder, mammal-er or naturalist of any sort, and are interested in writing for Field Ventures as an outlet to write for others enjoyment and education – please shoot me an email (JDHolbrook AT gmail) with a sample. I’m interested in bringing some other bloggers into the mix – also, please remember that my herp-related blog posts are syndicated by HerpNation.com – the best reptile and amphibian site out there, so you’d get lots of readership.

 

2.)    Please, tell your friends about Field Ventures and have them check out the posts here – the more readers I have, the more motivated I am to write.

 

3.)    I’ve added a section with the websites of a few friends of mine. Great content, so check it out.

 

4.)    If you visit Field Ventures, but perhaps not on a regular basis, please consider subscribing to the blog on the right hand side.

 

5.)    Tell me what you’d like to see written about – either in the poll below or in the comments section. I love writing, and I’m always looking for suggestions.

 

 

Thanks for reading everyone. God willing, the best is yet to come!

 

-Josh

 

Equipment Review: Fenix HP11

(Picture From Amazon.com)

A good, solid headlamp is a necessity for a serious herper. Photography, animal handling, scrambling up rock faces: none of them can be done well with one hand tied up with a flashlight. For the longest time, the Fenix HP10 was my go-to light – and I still bring it with me as a backup and a ‘loaner’ for friends to use. But nowadays, the HP11 is my main headlamp, and well worthy – even moreso than its predecessor – to be so.

Yes, this light has been through a lot in the year and a half since I first purchased it – in the swamps of the northern Everglades, the mangrove forests of the Keys, rock cuts on the legendary Pigeon Mountain, shining wee Cave Salamanders at snake road. It’s stood the test of time, so it’s about time it get my official endorsement and review. There have been some great improvements between the HP10 and HP11, not least among them a brighter LED and a brilliantly made diffuser. But we’ll get in to all that as we go through the scores.

Overall brightness – 8.5/10 – With an output of 277 lumens, there’s not much beating this headlamp. Despite only a slight improvement on paper over the HP10 (about 50 lumens brighter), the difference is palpable.

Width of Beam – 10/10 – Having a wide beam VS a narrow beam comes with a lot of tradeoffs: wide beams mean you can see more of the landscape and have better periphery vision, narrow beams mean more “throw.” Whatever you want, the HP11 will do it for ya’. That’s because the HP11 comes with a beautifully made, hardy diffuser that’s worlds better than the HP10’s, and what’s more – the diffuser actually comes included with the light. If you read my review of the HP10, you’ll know that the former model did not come with the diffuser, which I was not very happy with. Thankfully, this diffuser does penance for the sins of its predecessor and snaps down for an easy, wide reaching, and bright light. I could go on for a page singing the praises of the diffuser, but for the sake of the readership I’ll describe the light’s usefulness in one(ish) word: A-freaking-mazing.

Throw – 9/10 – Once again, the diffuser is beautiful and part of its beauty is the fact that one can flip it up in a second, and it doesn’t sag down and obstruct the view like the diffuser of the predecessor. Although I typically use more firepower for out-of-car shining, the HP11 has sufficient throw for a good night of spotlighting.

Water/Light Penetration – 7/10 – Good as with most Fenix lights, though if you’re doing some serious swamp walking, culvert shining or other aquatic uses, I’d recommend going with one of the brighter handlights, like the TK41.

Battery – 9.5/10 – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: you can’t go wrong with AA’s. The 4AA’s last a good bit, though with more lumens they last a little less longer than the HP10 – But for the vast majority of uses, batteries wont be an issue, and if they are, just carry and extra pack in your pocket. Typically, they’ll last about 3-3.5 hours for me on turbo before they tick down to high.

Size – 8.5/10 – A bit larger than the HP10, but still no complaints

Price – 9/10 – Typically ~$65 if you get it from Fenix Outfitters (which I’d recommend.) You can also get them lightly used/etc. on Amazon for ~$40.

Dependability – 8.5/10 – The only malfunction I’ve ever had with mine was with the plastic hinge, but no problems with the light function itself.

Ruggedness – 8/10 – As I said above, I had issues with the plastic hinge, but I sent it back to Fenix Outfitters and they sent me a loaner while it got fixed.

Other – 8/10 – Generally much better than the HP10, though still it can be glare-y if one doesn’t wear a brimmed hat with it.

OVERALL SCORE – 86/100

Overall, a worthy successor to the HP10, with some certain and vast improvements.

 

Species Profile: The Mangrove Salt Marsh Snake

We have four watersnakes of the genus Nerodia in my neck of Florida: the Green Watersnake (N. floridana), the Brown Watersnake (N. taxispilota) the Florida Watersnake (N. fasciata pictiventris) and the black sheep of the family – the Mangrove Salt Marsh Snake (N. clarkii compressicauda.) Why are Mangrove Snakes the black sheep of the family? There are actually a lot of reasons: despite the fact that it is closely related to the Florida Watersnake – and even readily hybridizes with them in the wild, the Mangrove Snake is quite a different animal.

Despite the “watersnake” designation that the genus Nerodia carries with it, Mangrove Snakes can’t be fully classified as aquatic: semi-aquatic, yes, but the fact of the matter is they will spend quite a bit of their time resting on the boughs and proproots of Red Mangroves (Rhizophora mangle) – they are indeed a semi-arboreal watersnake. The oddity doesn’t stop there either: anyone who’s ever handled a wild Nerodia of nearly any species will attest to the genus’ poor manners. That is to say, it is not uncommon to face the piercing of a watersnake’s teeth, the sting of the subsequent musk in the wounds and the steady drip of blood thanks to their anti-coagulant laden saliva. However, of the dozens of Mangrove Snakes I’ve handled during the research for my field guide and subsequent projects, I don’t recall once having been bitten by any of these docile snakes. Then there are the morphological differences: Nerodia clarkii compressicauda possesses a range of pattern and coloration. Sometimes they look vastly different from any other watersnake, sometimes they are nearly indistinguishable from the Florida Watersnake. Banding or striping, red, black, orange, yellow and grey are all within the natural variation for the species; perhaps surpassing even the Cornsnake in its range of natural variation.

The Mangrove Snake is a species I’ve been working with a lot lately both in the Everglades and the Florida Keys (I know, life’s tough.) The nature of their habitat choice with its high structure and ever-shifting tides, as well as their semi-arboreal habits begs the question of how best to survey for them: typically, Watersnakes are most efficiently and quantitatively surveyed for using aquatic trapping methods, that is, commercial minnow traps set in the water. My current work involves looking at the efficacy of this method when compared to foot and road survey methods. Like any organism; when one dedicates time to their study – to getting to know a species both in the scientific sense as well as the deeper knowledge of a species that can only come from observing and interacting with them in the field – that species becomes exponentially more interesting.

For those who have never had the pleasure of seeing a wild Mangrove Snake, I cannot express how thrilling it is to see them on the road or draped over a mangrove proproot – they are one of Florida’s finest, and I would recommend any herper add them to their lifelist.

 

Range Extension – Everglades Dwarf Siren

A note on a couple of populations of the Everglades Dwarf Siren found by Josh Young and myself with help from Brett Bartek and Melissa Dolinsky.

 

Exotic South Florida Part V: The Veiled Chameleon (Chameleo calyptratus) in Florida

Well, based on the lovely statistics that WordPress sends me, most people find my blog by searching for “Chameleons,” it would seem. Well, there are other species other than the Oustalet’s Chameleons (which I’ve talked about previously) here in Florida. The most well known, and perhaps most dear to my heart, is the Veiled Chameleon. Well known because they are widespread (In at least 5 counties, by my reckoning); and dear to my heart because they are, in fact, the one animal species I have been shot at while looking for.

These chameleons from Yemen have been in the pet trade for a number of years. Though they can often be expensive and/or tedious to keep in captivity, they thrive in southern Florida for a number of reasons. Of course, food is typically abundant in the disturbed habitats where they thrive, and chameleons are slow, yet deadly predators; however the real thing that has a potential to limit their distribution is the cold weather. They can succumb to frigid temperatures just like any other reptile: Veiled Chameleons, however, have a trick up their sleeve. They have the ability to burrow down – up to several feet – under the ground, and will readily use this ability to find refuge from frost and extreme cold. There is yet another use for this magnificent adaptation: they will use the same excavation ability once full grown (which takes less than a year) to make a safe, temperature-buffered chamber in which to lay their dozens of eggs. And I mean ‘dozens’ most literally: one individual I found a few years ago laid about 70 eggs.

By one way or another, it seems the hardiness of these chameleons became well known and they began to be spread by helping hands across the southern peninsula of Florida and eventually some of the populations began to be published (See Krysko et al, 2004). And, once published these sites attracted many more visitors – some not observing the trespassing laws, jumping fences and wreaking havoc with concerned locals.

Interestingly enough, though these lizards are certainly exotic, at times hard to find, and can have voracious appetites; I haven’t seen any evidence as-of-yet to suggest that they are invasive. To be clear: an exotic species is not necessarily an invasive species. In fact, as far as is known the majority of exotic species that end up getting released into a new environment die off rather quickly, and a majority of those that do survive will not be able to find a mate and reproduce. But even if an animal is able to reproduce in the wild, it still may not meet the distinction of being invasive. According to the USDA, an invasive species is one that is “non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.”

Does the Veiled Chameleon meet these criteria? Perhaps it will be found to, but given the evidence at this point in time we cannot but sure, so it would be premature at best and completely false at worst to label them such. These are a species which thrive in disturbed habitats in Florida, habitat which is often comprised of mostly exotic plants to begin with; and even so it is not entirely known what they eat in Florida: many keepers of the species note their affinity for eating brown anoles in captivity, an invasive species itself, and a species for which the south Florida ecosystem would benefit from reduced numbers.

Now, I don’t make this argument as an activist of some sort who is “pro” having chameleons in the wild in Florida, I only wish to make the point that we do not know. It would be a mistake (and a common one) to assume that this lack of knowledge means that the Veiled Chameleon is a completely harmless exotic; and it would be equally foolish to assume that this is an invasive species here. For myself, the lack of knowledge more than anything is an invitation to let curiosity run wild and seek out the truth of the matter: to delve deep into the species, to watch and to study it. And hopefully one day, to know it – that is the essence of why I became a biologist in the first place.

Krysko, K. L., K. M. Enge, and F. W. King. 2004. The veiled chameleon, Chamaeleo calyptratus Duméril and Bibron 1851 (Sauria: Chamaeleonidae): a new exotic species in Florida. Florida Scientist 67:249-253.

 

Frugivory in the Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei)

Just published in Herpetological Review – an observation I made of frugivory in Anolis sagrei in Palm Beach Co., FL. See it here: HR43(4)641Holbrook