A Trip to the Sunshine State - Part 1

It's been a while since my trip to Florida but I figured making a post about it now is better than never. It would be extremely long if I wrote about it so I will mostly just post the pictures.

Back in December my friend Taylor and I went on a road trip down to the sunshine state. We had our route planned out and our target species in mind. Leaving early in the morning we had a 24 hour drive ahead of us. 

After 12 hours we made a stop in the North Carolina Sandhills at night in attempt to find an Eastern Tiger Salamander. We met up with friends from the area and went out into the dark forest.

Unfortunately, the weather hadn't been right and the area was too dry so no Tigers were turned up. We did however find a few lifers:

Broken-striped Newt

Carpenter Frog
After a few hours in the Sandhills, we continued on our way to Central Florida to search the Xeric habitat for snakes.

On our first night in Central Florida we found several lifers, with my favorite being a Yellow Ratsnake!

Banded Watersnake

Yellow Ratsnake
Southern Toad



Pig Frog

Brown Anole

Green Treefrog -juvenile

House Gecko
The following day we went out in search of our main target of the trip, the Eastern Indigo Snake. Although we didn't turn one up we found a few other species.

Southern Five-lined Skink

Southern Black Racer - juvenile

Southern Black Racer - adult

Florida Scrub Lizard
These were all awesome finds, but my highlight of the day was definitely this Eastern Coachwhip.

Eastern Coachwhip



Eastern Coachwhip

Eastern Coachwhip
I had to dive into a cactus in order to catch this snake! I won't be doing that again but it was worth it for my lifer... maybe.

Later that night we went back out for some night herping and found some more frogs.


Green Treefrog - adult

Pinewoods Treefrog

Squirrel Treefrog
Greenhouse Frog
We also found another Banded Watersnake and my first wild American Alligator on our way back to our campsite.

Banded Watersnake


American Alligator
And this was just the beginning! We had the better part of a week left to herp Central and South Florida.



R. Wolfe

Comments

  1. Jessica L. Smith13 April 2021 at 19:44

    After being in relationship with Wilson for seven years,he broke up with me, I did everything possible to bring him back but all was in vain, I wanted him back so much because of the love I have for him, I begged him with everything, I made promises but he refused. I explained my problem to someone online and she suggested that I should contact a spell caster that could help me cast a spell to bring him back but I am the type that don’t believed in spell, I had no choice than to try it, I meant a spell caster called Dr Zuma zuk and I email him, and he told me there was no problem that everything will be okay before three days, that my ex will return to me before three days, he cast the spell and surprisingly in the second day, it was around 4pm. My ex called me, I was so surprised, I answered the call and all he said was that he was so sorry for everything that happened, that he wanted me to return to him, that he loves me so much. I was so happy and went to him, that was how we started living together happily again. Since then, I have made promise that anybody I know that have a relationship problem, I would be of help to such person by referring him or her to the only real and powerful spell caster who helped me with my own problem and who is different from all the fake ones out there. Anybody could need the help of the spell caster, his email: spiritualherbalisthealing@gmail.com or WhatsApp him +15068001647
    you can email him if you need his assistance in your relationship or anything. CONTACT HIM NOW FOR SOLUTION TO ALL YOUR PROBLEMS

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Early Emergence

Image
2018 started off with some intense weather fluctuations. By mid February we were seeing nights where the temperature would remain positive 5 degrees Celsius or more in the Hamilton-Wentworth Region. And some of these nights had large amounts of rainfall. Although it was only February, I knew that this weather would bring out some early rising amphibians. Particularly the Ambystomid species (mole salamanders). So on February 19th, when the weather was just right, myself and my friend Billy Olds grabbed our flashlights and went out into the night to look for amphibians. When we first arrived on location I was pretty confident that we would find at least 1 or 2 salamanders. But as we walked through the forest across an abundance of ice and snow and past vernal pools that were still completely frozen, that confidence started to diminish. We had even checked the pool where I often see Ambystoma maculatum (Spotted Salamanders) and Ambystma jeffersonianum x laterale (Jefferson x Blue-spot...
Read more

A Trip to the Sunshine State - Part 2

Image
During the middle of our stay we herped Central Florida for a day and then went down to the Everglades to look for reptiles and amphibians there. Unfortunately we had some very cold weather and didn't find as many species as expected in the glades.  Here's what we found: Blue Tail Mole Skink Blue Tail Mole Skink Eastern Narrow-mouthed Toad Florida Sand Skink Southern Black Racer Florida Cottonmouth Everglades Racer Peninsula Cooter Add caption We also had some neat bird observations - here are a few I was able to capture on camera Gallinule Add caption And then back to herps... American Alligator American Crocodile Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake - juvenile recently hit but still alive on the road American Alligator - juvenile American Alligator - juvenile Chicken Turtle Eastern Gartersnake R. Wolfe
Read more

February Findings

Image
When the sun comes out and the daily high is 14 or 15C for two days in a row, animals start to come up to enjoy the warmth, despite what month it is. And that's just what happened on February 27th and 28th. I had some free time and the weather was perfect, so I went out to a new location I had heard great things about to go for a hike, enjoy the warm sun, and hopefully see some reptiles and amphibians. I was not disappointed. Unfortunately, the first animal I came across was a deceased Thamnophis sirtalis (Eastern Gartersnake) that appeared to have frozen to death at the base of a tree. Thamophis sirtalis - Eastern Gartersnake. February 27th. But all of the animals to follow were very much alive, even though they were cold and lethargic. I managed to find my first Plethodon cinereus (Eastern Red-backed Salamanders) of the year. And at the same time found my first Hemidactylium scutatum (Four-toed Salamander) of the year, which also marks my first Four-toed Salamander I...
Read more