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March 17, 2004 - Travis County, Texas by Tim Cole
This morning we (Phil Ralidus & son, Marty Wamsley, Adam Dawson, Deb Sydney,
Jack Jeansonne, Nolan Dyer, and I) met at 10am. We went to one of my spots
appoximatly 10 minutes from the house. The first large item we flipped, had
a skunk underneath it! I've disturbed this animal before so I wasn't too
worried about it spraying. It paced back and forth a few times before running
into the woods. Under that item was more debris to be flipped and Nolan saw
a small Bufo valliceps (Gulf Coast Toad).
I flipped a piece of tin and found a 30" Crotalus atrox (Western Diamondback
Rattlesnake). It was lighter in color than what we usually see around here.
A minute later Phil and son found another 48" - 60" Crotalus atrox (Western
Diamondback Rattlesnake).
Throughout this area we saw numerous Ground Skinks (Scincella lateralis).
A couple minutes after that, Adam uncovered another 36" Crotalus atrox
(Western Diamondback Rattlesnake).
Needless to say, we all got a good look at it. Marty stepped on a board
near the snake to get closer for pictures. While he and I were watching
the snake, Phil and Adam were taking apart the rest of the wood pile in
search of anymore hidden treasures! Phil almost immediately found a 24"
Texas Rat Snake(Elaphe obsoleta lindheimeri).
Phil passed this snake onto me for Marty to shoot some more pics. A couple
minutes passed by and Adam found another snake! A 4ft Texas Rat Snake
(Elaphe obsoleta lindheimeri)!
Meanwhile Marty is taking pictures of the atrox and I noticed a coil of an
atrox protruding from under the board that he was standing on! I called over
to Adam and asked him why he didn't tell us about this other atrox! His
response was "What other atrox?!". Under the board was about a 4ft
Crotalus atrox (Western Diamondback Rattlesnake).
I removed the cover board from the second atrox and pointed it out to Adam
and everyone else that had just been climbing around in the woodpile unaware
of the second snake. During all this time neither snake moved or seemed too
upset by our intrusion. I saw a few tongue flicks and that was about it. Ok,
it's been a few minutes since Phil has found a snake. Never fear, for Phil
has found in the same woodpile a 30" Texas Patchnose (Salvadora grahamiae
lineata)!
In close proximity to the woodpile, Adam found under tin a juvenile Western
Coachwhip Masticophis flagellum testaceus).
Moving along to an area that has scattered tin, I turn up a juvenile
Checkered Garter Snake(Thamnophis marcianus marcianus).
Phil and I tear into some plastic roofing material and uncover an adult
Plains Blind Snake (Leptotyphlops dulcis dulcis).
Shortly after this, Marty, Nolan, and Jack flipped a 4x8 sheet of plywood
which revealed an adult Great Plains Narrow-mouth Toad (Gastrophryne olivacea).
We flipped over sections of an overhead garage door and revealed a 28"
Crotalus atrox (Western Diamondback Rattlesnake).
We also saw a juvenile Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus).
Under the same was discovered a skeleton of what I believe to be a neonate
atrox. We made our way to another area of the property which was more wooded
and had a fair amount of tin. Nolan spotted the last inch of a striped snake
tail disappearing into a pile of leaves. Marty found a piece of tin under
the leaves which when he lifted it revealed a juvenile Texas Patchnose
(Salvadora grahamiae lineata).
That was a good job by Nolan, spotting that small snakes tail! A few feet
away from there, Adam turned up under tin a 32" Western Coachwhip (Masticophis
flagellum testaceus).
Keep in mind that all of this happened in under 1 1/2 hours! Total count was
21 herps (not counting all of the Ground Skinks). A total of 10 species found.
If I made any errors in who caught what or snake sizes, I apologize. We had a
great time herping.
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