Herp Trip FL/GA 3-6-2006

For my first herping trip of the year I drove down to Ocala, Florida to meet Bart. He had just finished working at a motorcylcle show and we decided to herp our way back north for the day. The weather was still a bit cool but we managed to find a few nice herps.

At our hotel room Bart shows off his menagerie of snake/amphibian tools. Gotta love those potato rakes.

Our first find was a stash of eggs that hatched the previous season. Most likely Black Racer eggs.

An Alligator warming up in the midday sun. We were visiting the Lake Woodruff Wildlife Refuge. I really love the beauty of this place.

Another shot of an Alligator soaking up some rays. The turtles were out as well and seemed to be enjoying the spring time warmth.

We ran into a gentleman who was out looking for birds to photograph. He had this really neat setup to help stabilize his camera for handheld shooting with his zoom lense. He basically uses it like a gun with the wood stock braced against his shouler and a remote release positioned where the trigger would normally be.

A Yellow Ratsnake was found underneath a bridge. Habitat shot where we typically find Cottonmouths.

We stopped at a gas station to get some bottled water and beef jerkey when Bart spotted a few pieces of tin right behind the place. A few moments later I hear "Diamondback"! I ran over and snapped a few pictures.

Here is a view of the same snake just as the tin was lifted up.

Driving from Florida into Georgia we spotted this happily "Just Married" couple. Wow :-)

We were running out of daylight but one more tin spot produced another nice EDB. There were people who lived right next to this old building and they came over to see what we were doing. They were very friendly and we even convinced them not to kill the EDB after we left.

We got up the next morning and hit a few more spots that produced some colorful snakes. First find was a very common Black Racer. Next was a Ringneck Snake.

Corn Snake and a "greenish" Yellow Ratsnake.

And to top it off we found a few Scarlet Kingsnakes.

The end:-)