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

 

The Coastal Dunes Crowned Snake (Tantilla relicta pamlica)

Tantilla relicta pamlica looks just about like any other tantilla; which are typically pretty diminutive and unimpressive snakes themselves, but the Coastal Dunes Crowned Snake is nevertheless a special snake. They are endemic to the southeastern coast of Florida from Brevard to Palm Beach County, unlike the other subspecies Tantilla relicta relicta and T. r. neilli which can be found from the south-central part of the peninsula northward.

Coastal Dunes Crowned Snakes are rarely seen, and anyone who’s visited southeastern Florida can tell you why: only a small part of their range still possesses the scrub, hammock and other habitat they need to survive. Not that this 6-10 inch snake needs much room to survive, but when your home also happens to be the best place on Earth to build a condo; someone’s going suffer – and in this case the animals with limbs and bulldozers win.

Fortunately though, there are some abandoned lots here and there, natural areas and state parks where these and other species hang on, hopefully indefinitely. It is in one of these places where I found a Coastal Dunes Crowned Snake, the last snake taxa I had left to find that is native to my county. I had been hiking and thought to myself how similar the habitat I was in looked to the habitat I find Tantilla in when in central Florida. I mentioned it to my wife and looked under a couple logs here and there. As we continued on, I spied a water spigot that looked like it may have dripped occasionally onto the small concrete slab below it. In the sandy soils of Florida, finding a source of water is objective #1, especially if you’re a small and easily dessicated snake.

Yes; I thought to myself, that slab surely provided the water and centipede prey that Tantilla need to survive. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, such a thought will occur to me and I will flip that rock and it will be completely empty underneath. But one in a hundred times or so; something amazing will happen. Can you guess which happened this time?

Sure enough, a little sandy-colored snake wriggled by and into the sand under the rock. With that, and a few pictures, I was on cloud nine. Granted, a few year ago, I’d think it insane to get excited over such a little thing; but perhaps with some maturity in herping one comes to appreciate the little things. I let the little fellow on his way and continued on my way, happy to know that there’s still room for an tiny, endemic wonder such as Tantilla relicta pamlica.

 

The North American Field Herping Association and the First Annual NAFHA Meeting

There are a lot of field herpers in the world. Yes, we may not be as large of a group as birders, but there are a lot of people who get out on a regular basis to look for reptiles and amphibians in the field. For instance, FieldHerpForum.com, the biggest and best field herping dedicated website out there has a hair under 3,000 registered users and many herpers don’t post online or advertise their hobby. We’re looking at a big group and all the field hours represented by our group has the potential to add up to a lot of good information on life history, conservation status, ecology and many other facets of herpetology. Thankfully, for this, we have the North American Field Herping Association (NAFHA) and the HERP Database.

NAFHA is a group of field herpers who pool their field data and expertise for the purpose of education, conservation and knowledge of reptile and amphibian species. Make no mistake, these three goals are all highly interconnected and dependent upon one another: education to the public of reptile and amphibians matters make them seem less like beasts to be feared and more like wonders to behold which inevitably leads to greater conservation, especially on the small scale levels which are the most important – think of the number of people out there who no longer bludgeon snakes or other herps to death because a friend or family member is a herper. And also, gaining the knowledge on reptiles and amphibians allows those of us who enjoy them to educate others, and allows organizations to implement that knowledge for large scale projects such as habitat conservation, etc. I strongly recommend herpers out there get involved with NAFHA, get to some group outings, and enter some (or all, if you have the time) of your finds into the database at NAHERP.com.

Although I am passionate about education, conservation and gaining knowledge of reptiles and amphibians, perhaps the best reason I can think of for being involved in NAFHA is the community of herpers involved. My first NAFHA trip was one I organized to northern Alabama for our very own Southeast Chapter, and upon arrival all of us were instantly friends and we had a superb time camping as well as getting out and enjoying looking for critters together. A year almost to the day later and I got to join up with 70-ish other herpers for the first NAFHA annual meeting in southern Illinois at Snake Road. This was, perhaps, one of the most fun gatherings I have ever been a part of: 70 people came together, many of them for the first time, and it was as if we were all old friends.

We, myself and good friend Don, arrived at the chilly campground late at night only to be faced with the predicament: we’re getting up early tomorrow to look for some hognoses – 6am-ish. We can either go to bed now, hang out for a little while and then go to bed, or go look for some cave salamanders. The answer? Anybody who’s ever been around a tried and true herper in a new locale certainly knows the answer: We hung out for a little bit, went out for cave salamanders (finding several thanks to our local guides,) hung out a little more – then at some point we closed our eyes for a minute or two.

            Despite this lack of sleep, we awoke the next morning and caravanned across the state lines. Donald and I had the distinct pleasure of riding with my friends Daniel and Yvonne Dye – I first met the Dyes through NAFHA and we’ve had some pretty stellar times herping together since then (and every once in a while Daniel looks at a bug too.) In short order (ok, we got lost once,) we were there: a beautiful sandy prairie – prime Dusty Hognose (Heterodon gloydi or Heterodon nasicus gloydi) habitat.

To back up a smidgen – Dusty Hognoses are not common in Missouri. In fact, when speaking later with Mike Pingleton, he informed me that they were on the state’s endangered species list and subsequently taken off. You might think getting taken off the endangered species list is a good thing; this is not the case with Missouri’s Dusty Hogs – they were taken off because one hadn’t been seen in the state in 80 years.
Flash forward to 2012, and one or two have turned up at the site we were at just in the past year. I have learned to be skeptical when it comes to my chances of finding hognoses in the field (see http://fieldventures.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/the-great-white-whale/ ); so I was hopeful but not necessarily expectant. The expectation came when we began finding small, triangle-shaped burrows, some of them with recent tail slides going into them. Yes, expectation and excitement. Kind of like Christmas.

So we walked and walked looking for the critters. During that time I took a few breaks and just admired the beauty of the sandy prairie: I began to wish I had a decade or two to live nearby and immerse myself in the flora and fauna of the area, there’s no telling what secrets the place had if it had been hiding Hogs for 80 years. Though I was not the one to walk up on any of them (I was only about 10 meters away from one of the find though, so I count it,) our group of 20 or so herpers ended up with three Dusty Hognoses that day. We also turned up a Northern Scarlet Snake (Cemephora coccinea copei), which I was a little dismissive of, given the dozens one can see every night in some areas of southern Florida. I was abruptly chastised by Mike for failing to show respect for the critter: it was one of less than ten ever found in the state. Sorry Mike. After this, most of us headed back to visit with the new arrivals to the camp, and a few went on to a glade that has turned up some interesting herps in the past.

Dusty Hognose (Heterodon nascicus gloydi)

I opted to head back because I wanted to greet all the newcomers (this was actually just as much a social trip as a herping trip for me, after all,) and I also wanted to get my first look at the infamous Snake Road in daylight. It ended up bring cold and wet, but the beautiful thing about Snake Road is that it’s situated right at the edge of the ranges of many western species (and subspecies), so many of the herps Donald and I saw that seemed like old friends were actually completely different animals (Western Cottonmouths, Western Slimy Salamanders, etc.)

Smooth Earth Snake (Virginia valeriae)

That evening a group of 12 of us or so decided to go into town for some Barbeque: I found it interesting that a Barbeque dinner is a herping tradition even for herpers in the great white north. We ate there then returned to the camp, where we all partook of some great conversation and fun times. It was especially fun to hear of some of the adventures of the more nomadic herpers in our group like Marisa I., Tim W., Donald, and several others who spend great swaths of time traveling and enjoying North America’s herpetofauna.

And Dan Krull’s pancakes really deserve their own photo and caption.

The next day was a riot (almost literally, except there was no smashing of windows or looting.) All 70 NAFHA herpers departed to the road and began walking and searching. On paper, the conditions were pretty terrible that day: cold, still wet from yesterday. Did I mention cold? Well, with 70 herpers, even terrible conditions can be productive – in fact, it would be amazing to see what such a group would find under ideal conditions, because even so our species list was pretty impressive: Red Milksnake, Copperhead, Cottonmouth, Timber Rattler, Lesser Siren, Smooth Earth Snake, and others that I’m sure I’m forgetting. That evening I gave a talk on aquatic herp trapping, and once again enjoyed some time around the fire.

Donald and I had to leave early the next day for our last leg of the trip: going to Pigeon Mountain, GA in search of the Pigeon Mountain Salamander, and we left the group shortly into a search for a few Amystomid salamanders and a few other snakes in another area of IL. It was saddening to depart from a group that we’d had such a wonderful time with, but a few lifers were calling our name and we had a flight to catch some 8 or 9 hours south of where we were.

Over the long weekend, we had a huge mix of a lot of different views and philosophies, a lot of different ways to be divided: Atheists, Christians, republicans, democrats, libertarians, socialists, artists, businessmen, and any number of other categories. Despite this, I am not aware of one instance of strife or not getting along amongst the group: just one shared passion for reptiles and amphibians. It’s a beautiful thing, and begs one question: Who’s in for the NAFHA 2013 Annual Meeting?

 

Announcements and Inqueries

Hello all,

 

I just got back from a most excellent field trip for the first annual meeting of the North American Field Herping Association – I’ll have posts on some of the stuff from that as well as new content in the next couple of weeks. But I also want more input: If you read this blog – what do YOU want to see. I did a poll a while back and got some good feedback, but it’s been a while since then and I’d like some more talk on what works, what doesn’t etc.

 

Also – If you check out the upcoming issue of Herp Nation Magazine I’ll have an article appearing in it on Spotted Turtles, covering a bit of their captive husbandry as well as wild ecology. It’s shipping out this very week, so if you’re not a subscriber, you should be! I believe they also sell individual mags on their website (HerpNation.com)

 

And finally, I got a bunch of requests to get my book via Amazon.com – here it is: http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Snakes-Southern-Florida/dp/0983278989/ref=?ie=UTF8&m=A15W86KJ5D5OBI

Be sure to buy it from “Field Ventures” for a signed copy.

Let’s hear some constructive criticism and/or suggestions; and more to come soon.

 

-Josh