Looked like fun... wish I was there!! :D n/p

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Posted by RachelS. on April 13, 2003 at 15:14:17:

In Reply to: bored so here is my field report from yesterday posted by snakeguy88 on April 13, 2003 at 13:17:09:

:First, here is a comparison of two speckleds (one the find from Friday) that are from an area about 100 yrds apart for those of you that were wondering about the king.
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:Scott and I left about 10 yesterday morning with temps in the high 70's or 80's. Our first find was a large gulf coast toad sharing a board with (presumably) a pair of Eastern Narrowmouths (sorry no pics). Interesting little guys. It remained rather uneventful with our only find being a nighthawk of some sort we spooked from the ground. While crossing through a dried swamp we came across this little guy, a young proximus:
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:We took a few pictures and sent him on his way. After transversing the swamp and along the creeks and dead end streets I found this nice bulldozer that has been tearing up our herping area. After checking for keys, I decided I wanted to see if there was any special feeling people get that motivates them to destroy the area after getting in the machine...There wasn't lol.
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:After checking a few boards and pulling a rusty nail out of my foot after it went through my boot and about a quarter inch into my heel (which is keeping me out of commission rather well today) we came to the area where the creeks drops over a small waterfall. I spotted this guy swimming up current and Scott spooked him down towards me. I went for a little swim and grabbed him up. Here is Scott helping this large female pose:
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:The pattern took Scott and I for a loop...it had rather strange looking blotches so we were thinking it might be a flavigaster, yet the the belly suggests transversa. Either way, its mean and will make a nice breeder. I accidently kicked this guy while trecking through a shallow part of a swamp yet she was still nice enough to give us a few shots.
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:Our next find was while tracking through a waist high swamp, a large and beautiful broad band crossing the swamp. Before it got into the reeds, Scott tried to run up and pluck it from the water only to have it dive at the last second. Needless to say, there are no pics. After moving to a new area, we flipped some carpet with this guy under it. His shed was actually starting to peel off...a great looking little contortix.
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:To wrap up the day, we found another 3 proximus all within about about a 20 yrd range. Not a bad day overall. In addition we found a few skinks to give to Scott's contortix and I collected an anole or two that my patchnose has already polished off. No kings, but hey, the herping season is just getting warmed up.

:1 N. e. transversa
:1 N. f. confluens
:1 A. c. contortix
:2 Eastern Narrowmouth toads
:2 Bufo nebulifer
:2 Anolis caroliniensis
:TMTC ground and five lined skinks
:1 red ear slider
:4 Thamnophis proximus proximus
:TMTC bull and leo frogs

:Happy herping. Andy

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