NKFherping

Some finds from another night herping in the Chihuahuan Desert of west Texas this summer!

A very strange encounter from my time in west Texas, a Western Coachwhip (Masticophis flagellum testaceus) that had somehow gotten into Stephen and Sofia’s chicken coop and became trapped in the wire trying to escape. Sofia noticed Oso was barking at the chicken coop, and sure enough this snake was stuck right where he was barking. We were able to get him out by cutting a few links of wire with only some minor scale damage to the snake, but if we hadn’t come along thanks to Oso it’s likely this snake would’ve eventually overheated in the mid day sun, or been killed by the chickens. This ended up being the only in-hand Coachwhip of the trip, and as you could see at the end he was more than ready to go back into the wild.

One of my favorite things about looking for snakes is all the other wildlife encounters along the way! This Raccoon gave us a good laugh on an otherwise slow night of herping.

A big male Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) crossing the road this week in north Georgia! August is breeding season for these snakes, so big males like this one are on the hunt for ladies and may be seen crossing roads more frequently than other times of year.

Some finds from a super productive rocket run to north Florida a few summers back!

Moving a charismatic young Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) out of the road after a summer rainstorm!

Some highlights from one of the most absurd days of flipping I have ever had in Georgia from a few years back. The dog days of summer always lead me to reminisce upon mild spring days spent in the field. Hopefully some magic like this will be in store in a few weeks when temperatures begin to cool off for the fall, although several of the sites featured in this video have since been destroyed by the endless development that plagues rapidly vanishing rural Georgia.

A few finds from a fairly slow night shining in west Texas! The Banded Geckos were particularly active, and we ended the night with a very strange dead Western Coachwhip that appeared to have died suddenly while emerging from a hole in the rocks. I couldn’t begin to guess what happened to this snake, after further inspecting the body there were no obvious signs of trauma other than what I assume was post-mortem rodent damage to the tail. There’s a first time for everything in the field I guess.