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.