Easter Florida Herp Trip

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Posted by TheObserver on April 21, 2003 at 23:45:21:

This my first post on this forum and I am new to posting on Kingsnake altogether. I just thought I would share what we found. Anyways myself, and a friend went on our 2nd herp trip of the year to florida from Friday night to Monday morning we saw quite alot!!! Friday night the first find a nice little Scarlet Kingsnake, and then Saturday came. We headed out Saturday morning a few Gulf Coast Box Turtles and a sad sight in the middle of a town back close to where we were staying a 4 foot long Florida Pine snake deadon the road. We rested up and headed back out for the afternoon we had incredible luck this evening we were able to see 5 live Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnakes all within minutes of each other , 2 DOR Dusky Pigmy Rattlesnakes, had a great thrill when we found a Pine Woods Snake, and also came up on a Glossy Crayfish snake and a Scarlet Snake. For us the Pine Woods Snake made the night a first for us to see alive in the wild (Happy to report he is still there)!! On too Sunday morning In a few ways Sunday was tough. 1st thing that morning a bittersweet discovery a Eastern Coral snake DOR another 1st for me but too bad it wasn't alive. It was a real attractive Coral snake with small black blotches inside of some of the Red blotches an exsquisite animal. Then we found some Gulf Coast Box Turtles and a beautiful young Gray rat snake.That afternoon we headed back out we found a couple of large black racers and we come up on a Florida Pine again this one ran over also...So we thought... then we noticed large pieces of broken wood around this animal and several torn places...Some one had shown supreme cowardice in the middle of a forest and brutally murdered one of the snakes I most admire. It put a damper on things for a good while. But then we got back to thinking about herps and we found a Green Snake, a Eastern Ribbon Snake, and another sensational find that night a 100% perfect absolutely beautiful and alive 4 foot long Mud Snake. Had a sensational time and will soon have some sensational photos from this!! During the trip we also viewed several anoles, and Alligators basking also several other DOR's Cottonmouths, watersnakes, garters. I guess the E. Diamondback pic will have to wait til next time. After all these years nothing beats getting out to see these animals and nothing beats the rush of coming up on something you have never seen before or something you get re-aquainted with and we also made some new friends that were herping also that we bumped into!!

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Easter Florida Herp Trip Steve G 04/24/03 (0)