Appalachian Field Herping 2014

[Tim Benzedrine]

So, my dear friend and AB alumni Sheri Monk and I set off for the mountains for a couple days in search of Crotalus horridus and Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen (timber rattlesnake and Northern copperhead, respectively), and anything else we might run across. We were fortunate enough to be accompanied by a biologist who knew well where to locate the snakes, so there was little fear of getting skunked. Here are a few photos on day one...we encountered several others, but some were back in crevices making photographing them a little difficult, so I'm only posting the best pictures.

We were not afield but for 15 minutes and had not even left the trail before we encountered our first horridus. What's more We had scarcely finished taking pictures of that one before our host called for us to come up to the top of the rock. There was another rattler up there, and in the same spot was also an Agkistrodon as well. i was unable to scramble up quick enough to get a good photo of the second rattler, but I got a decent shot of the copperhead. The first two photos below show them.

Enthused to the max at such quick success, we left the trail. Our host was a man in his 70's and he was able to leave Sheri, her son, and I in the dust The guy was really fit! We were in pretty rugged, steep terrain. Anyway after reaching a relatively level area, we found our third horridus for the day. This was a pretty big one, and the lighting was sufficient enough to get some pretty good shots of it (picture 3).
From that point on we encountered more, some of which made for good photos, but I'm only posting the best, so picture 4 is of one that was semi-concealed in some brush. After finding a few more, we decided to call it quits, as we were exhausted. By "we" I mean Sheri, her son, and myself. I don't think our host even broke a sweat.

Day 2 will be next post.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Day 2, Part 1

We weren't going to be able to spend quite as much time on the hunt during the second day, we had a bit of sight-seeing we wanted to do, so we allotted about 3 hours. This did not impact our success negatively though.

The first big guy shown I didn't notice at first. I was focused on a shed that I was considering grabbing and then glanced over a few feet to see if the area was safe and I spotted him. The others had already noticed him and were slightly ahead of me. they had called my attention to it, but I thought they were referring to another nearby snake. Which goes to show you, always survey the area before making any decisions about how to proceed.

Slightly above that snake was a crevice housing several. I believe the count was 14 total, but you can't see them all in the pictures, some were in the shadows. the second, third and fourth pictures shows some the denizens of the crevice closer.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Day, Part two

We were swinging back around in the general direction of our vehicles, but there were still some areas to examine. I finally spotted one on my own, the darkest phase we had encountered. unfortunately as you can see in the first phot, she was only partially exposed. i said "she' because the smake was definitely carrying young.
There were some five-lined skinks scurrying about, one of them decided it might like to be a Canadian citizen and tried to hitch a ride with Sheri. it ran across the rock and up her leg and avoided her efforts to remove it by runnig around to her backside. I tried to help, but as seen in the second photo it was venturing onto some territory that I sure wasn't going to make a grab for!

On the way out, Sheri's son gave a shout. He had spotted an Easter box turtle that the rest of us had walked right past. It wasn't a big deal for our guide and myself, but Sheri and her boy was pretty tickled, it was a first for them just as much as the rattlers, copperheads, and skinks were. We had also ran across a fence lizard, the species here was a first for Sheri as well. It moved too quick, thus no photo. One other new one for her was a black rat snake, about the only snake I ever see in my neck of the woods. but they were happy, and we let her son handle it as our leader grabbed it when it tried to take off.. It promptly tried to take a piece out the boy, but their bites don't hurt much, of course. I think he was pleased and proud to have sustained a battle wound. It gave us no opportunity for a photo either, it headed for the hills immediately upon being put down on the ground.

We continued on and after a bit I heard our leader call out. "Find one?" I called. He had found one by nearly stepping on it. He had nearly put his foot down just before it caught his eye. It was another copperhead, a small one. In preparing for this trip, I had been more concerned about being tagged by a copperhead than I had been about being bit by a rattler. Rattlers can be difficult to see, but copperheads are next to invisible. Check out how closely this one matched the surrounding leaves in the fourth picture.

Finally, on the way out we found two hiding beneath a bush (last picture). One grew irritated and buzzed as he pulled up stakes and left. Few of the rattlers had bothered to give their classic warning sound. I think we got the buzzing only one other time, and we were unable to locate the one doing it. We thought it must have been beneath the rocks and the sound was carrying by way of the acoustics.

And that was the end of our herping adventure. We left tired, but satisfied. The count was in the end:

30 timer rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus)
2 copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen)
A few skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus)
An Eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)
An Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina)
A black rat snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis)

 

[Tivia]

Sounds like it was an excellent trip. I also hiked the AT near my house this past weekend. We only did an 8 mile stretch, though. We saw copperheads and a black rat snake. I really wanted to see a rattlesnake, but we didn't spot any. Saw lots of cool inverts, though! The views couldn't be beat from The Pinnacle, either. Simply breathtaking.

You got some excellent pics, thanks for sharing!!

 

[Shrike]

Awesome finds!

 

[catfishrod69]

Love the pics Tim! Copperheads are my all time favorite snake. I like the look of the southerns most though.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

I've never compared the two copperheads, I'll have to take a look and see what the southern one looks like in comparison.
Glad you guys liked the photos. They are not national Geographic quality, but I was pretty happy with several of them.

 

[TarantulasWorld]

I am so jealous of this. Unfortunately I live in suburbia NY but would love to do something similar to this

 

[ratluvr76]

I live in Louisiana... I need to get out there with a camera, especially in spring when all the alligators and herps like that are out in force. Maybe try to get a couple of shots of some water moccasins, false water snakes, speckled kings and pitophis (bull snakes) We've got eastern box turtles, painted box turtles, red eared sliders in spades. I love it here LOL

Love your pictures! that copper head is amazing. love it. Thank you for sharing them.

 

[Scorpionluva]

Very nice finds + pics !! What part did you find these snakes in ? I live in western Pa and have found many timber rattlers but not many copperheads Probably why I love scorpions so much we don't find them in Pa but lots of other herps. Just caught a nice rat snake the other day !

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

We were in the Eastern panhandle area. Rat snakes are fantastic animals, and might be a bit underated. I am dipping my toes into scorps. And by 'dipping" I mean just that. Well, not literally, that would be a little dumb. But I was recently given a very small scorp of undetermined species, (likely a Centruoides), it is only the size of a grain of rice. A friend found it in the bathroom of a motel she was staying at in Texas and decided to bring it to me. I'm slated to receive an A. geniculata in the near future, and I think I am going with a S. mesaensis as my "freebie" as the other choices of T's are either just a bit hot for my tastes or species I'm not all that interested in, though I am sure they are really nice spiders.

Ratluvr76, thanks for the comment regarding the copperhead shot. I'm pretty pleased with it. I wish I had taken even more shots, what i got was good, but I'll bet I could have done even better, it was being very cooperative. "Cooperative" = "I'll just sit still and maybe this idiot will go away!"
I sort of wish we had the variety of herps here that the southern states have. Still, what we do have are very nice, I think.

 

[ratluvr76]

Ratluvr76, thanks for the comment regarding the copperhead shot. I'm pretty pleased with it. I wish I had taken even more shots, what i got was good, but I'll bet I could have done even better, it was being very cooperative. "Cooperative" = "I'll just sit still and maybe this idiot will go away!"
I sort of wish we had the variety of herps here that the southern states have. Still, what we do have are very nice, I think.

oh I agree. I didn't mean that the species there were somehow inferior to the ones here but that's part of the reason I love living in the south... more herps, more plants longer growing season etc. I'm originally from Alberta, Canada. What I love there is the varied species of mammal life, Black Bears, Grizzly Bears, Brown Bears, if you go up into the North West Territories you can find Polar Bears, there are beaver, moose, elk, several types of deer, big horn sheep, mountain goats.. the list goes on there too. It doesn't matter where you live on the globe, there is a unique set of fauna and flora that are in that area to be appreciated.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

Oh, I didn't infer from your post that you were suggesting the herps here are inferior. The herping is, though, in view of the variety of species that are available in the south. And the west, for that matter.

Coincidentally, the person I went on the field trip with lives in Alberta.

 

[ratluvr76]

Oh, I didn't infer from your post that you were suggesting the herps here are inferior. The herping is, though, in view of the variety of species that are available in the south. And the west, for that matter.

Coincidentally, the person I went on the field trip with lives in Alberta.

That's cool, always nice to find other Canucks on the radar, and when from the same area, even better lol. I lived in the Lethbridge/ Calgary area for the first half of my life lol.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

I don't as a rule do this, but it was remarked that my account of this trip in the longer form might be of some amusement to those that have read this thread.So in a rare moment of self-promotion, I'll share a link to the full story. I do a humour column "Possum Tracks", for a local web-newssite This link takes you to a sort of preface of the journey. There was a previous one concerning how it all came about, but that may be of no interest whatsoever, if indeed any of it is of interest at all. But if you want to read it, clicking my name will take you to the list of entries, the (pre) preface is called " The Possum's Big Adventure!" So if you want to read that just click my name and it should take you to a list containing the following chapters, by reverse date. "The Possum's Big Adventure", "The Adventure Continues!", "The Further Adventures of Possum Man, Or Snakes Ahoy!" and "Fangs for the Memories" I get no compensation for the number of hits my pieces receive, for those who might think, "Lookit at this guy spamming for hits!" i have no idea whether or not the owners of the site get anything per click or not.

Again, It all may be of utterly no interest, no obligation to read any of it.

http://connect-clarksburg.com/conne...on=Features&item=The-Adventure-Continues-7028