Field Herping 02/16/08 DUW

[AB^]

As is normal for this time of year I found lots and lots of Slender salamanders. I was hoping to find their predator the ringneck snake, but no luck there.

and here is a new find for the area. The Arboreal salamander. I knew they were found in the area but in the years I have searched this particular area this is the first specimen I have ever found.

I also found several western skinks

and here's this one with the split tail regeneration. This would be the first time I have found a animal with a tail regenerated like this in the wild.

Western Fence Lizards were also found catching a few rays.
It was suprising that all the specimens found were quite small, not a single large adult was found and they are usually out by the hundreds in warmer weather.

I was also able to come across an alligator lizard. Unfortunatley on first grab a manage to yank its tail off. It was an unuasual specimen for the area with the large amount of black pigment it had. At first glance I thught it was a southern but upon inspecting the belly scales it was in fact a Northern alligator lizard, which arent nearly as common as the southerns in this particular area.

and here's a few random Invertebrate,Fungi,scenery/habitat and ????
Pictures.

All the blue in the above pic is the ocean

Enjoy!! I did

 

[VARNYARD]

Awesome Kevin, you got some great shots, thanks for sharing!!

 

[Lexi]

I had a ring neck snake once.. But i lost it in my room :X

 

[dorton]

Cool finds, thanks for sharing

 

[joshandjack]

allright, your making me jealous,
where is that? Sonoma county? mendocino? marin? i used to live in santa rosa and i miss all of the herps.
one of my favorite places to go is Sugarloaf state park between santa rosa and sonoma, you should check it out if you havnt allready been there, ive seen some awesome pacific ringneck up there btw.

 

[joshandjack]

oh yeah,next time i go back, i want to find some california tiger salamanders, pacific giants, and california mountain kings, do you know any good places for the mountain kings? they sure are beautiful, but ive never come across any. those arboreal salamanders are pretty cool too.

 

[PuffDragon]

Wicked pics....what's the temps by you?

 

[boygenius]

That is way awesome.

Sort of a newbie question, but how would you go about catching them when you're herping?

I'd imagine it's not like they'll stand still for you to catch them.

 

[Mike]

Very nice pics, I find both salamanders in copious amounts.

 

[AB^]

JoshandJack- That's Marin county. Supposedly Mt. Tamalpais is a good place for Zonata but I have never found one. Interestingly enough though, My brother found an adult here in the east bay in his backyard which is right by the El cerrito BART station. Not exactley a "natural" area in the least except a small creek.
I'm going to look into sugarloaf, I always enjoy trekking around new locations.

Lexi- I had the same thing happen with a sharp tailed snake
: ^ /

Puff - it was probably Low 60's


BoyGenius - It's experience and skill catching lizards. The salamanders arent much of a challenge though lol.

Mike - I tend to find the slender salamanders by the hundreds this time of year. Usually they are the only species I find. I missed the pacific newt migrations this year too : (
it's one of my favorite things to watch as the clumsy creatures make their way to the breeding ponds.

 

[shiftylarry]

AB^, I live in Tiburon California, which is in Marin County where are you located?

 

[AB^]

Chris,

I used to live in San Rafael. Currently I live in the El Cerrito area in the east bay. If you're into field herping at all you should hit me up sometime. BTW, that RZ thread regarding substrates is awesome
when will these people learn lol.

 

[joshandjack]

dang, the red bellied newts have already migrated, usually that happens later in february.

 

[gebris353]

Awesome, we dont see much herps around here except for some snakes, I can tell you some of them had scared the hell out of me while looking for some snails for Juancho, cause they are not what small. They always run as fast as they can when you find them tho, which is great lol.

The only time I found lots of salamanders was in Holland, they arent in my area.

Anyway, those are great shots and seems to have been a great day out there! :-D

 

[COWHER]

i love nature :dan

 

[AB^]

dang, the red bellied newts have already migrated, usually that happens later in february.

It seems I find the largest amount of Taricha cruising along right around new years in some of the reserves in the east bay. It's actually the only time I ever find more than one or two specimens during an outing.

 

[ZEKE]

woah thats awesome. all i can find around here is frogs we have a creek across the street in the park and i find huge bullfrogs and some others that i think are leopard frogs there. where do you find skinks and stuff? i dont know where to look to find lizards and snakes and anything besides frogs.

 

[GOT_TEGUS]

great pics AB I like alligator lizards send me some of those lol