HoTX Challenges with Prizes by Stoney!
With this rain, it is time to go herping! And we have great news, Animal Equipment by Stoney is offering some great prizes this year. The winner of the big year will receive a Stump Ripper, plus major bragging rights. Plus, TNT will be awarding new field guides to whoever can document over 100 species: Check out the leaderboard: http://bit.ly/HOTX2016
Plus there will be some great prizes offered at Snake Days: http://www.inaturalist.org/projects/snake-days-2016
And don't forget about the Spring Turtle Challenge: To celebrate the arrival of a new guide Texas Turtles & Crocodilians by Troy D. Hibbitts ( @troyhibbitts )and Terry L. Hibbits ( @dianaterryhibbitts ), we are posting a Spring challenge to see who can find the most species of Turtles and Crocodilians. If you find more than one wild crocodilian, I will be very impressed! All observations must be made between January 1st and May 31st, 2016. The top two winners will receive a copy of the new guide signed by the authors.
Book: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/hibbitts-texas-turtles-and-crocodilians
Comments
I need some advice from herpers -- what's the best way to look for herps at night? Where do you go? Where do you look? What do you wear? What's the best time (time of night/morning and what season) to go out?
Any advice would be great (not just for me, but also for all of the other folks that are looking for herps, I'm sure). :)
Since, nobody else has answered this yet, I'll take a shot at it even though I'm a beginner and more of a birder than anything else. It REALLY depends on what kind of herps you want to find. Since we are both in Texas, snake diversity is very very good and night-time is the best time to find snakes, so I'll start there. Road-cruising is the most effective and most popular method at night. You find roads with EXTREMELY low traffic in areas that are well known to have healthy snake populations and you drive on them very slowly until you find a snake. All snakes (that I know of) have a characteristic way of reflecting in your headlights, though it may take a while to get used to. Talking with herpers will get you some insight into specific locations that are well-known, but so will iNat. If you look at some of the species maps, you'll notice that the observations trace out roadways. That shows you how popular road-cruising is as a method.
To do this, you MUST wear a sufficiently reflective vest. You can buy them pretty cheap at Academy, I'm sure on Amazon too. I should also point out that if a snake is in the road, you can only photograph it from the side of the road, legally. You cannot collect it. If you want to collect from road cuts or other legal rights-of-way where collecting is permitted, you will need a hunting license and a herp stamp, which are $35 combined. After rain, you can find frogs and toads while road-cruising, too. There are not very many species of lizards out at night and as far as I've seen, road cruising is not a good method for finding those that are.
Good timing is helpful. If you're looking for amphibians, hopefully someone can chime in on that because I know nothing. For snakes, it has to be the warm season. Right now is about the earliest time of the year for good road cruising. I know May and June are really good months. The road has to be warm. 70s or above. After a rain is good for all kinds of animals, snakes included, but especially if you're into desert frogs and toads.
Awesome -- thank you so much for the guidance. :) Now, I just need to go out and search!
When I said that you MUST wear a sufficiently reflective vest, I failed to mention that it is required by law and that is why you "must" do it. That's important. I also carry the $35 license with herp stamp even though I don't collect. This way, if I'm hassled about it at a snake-collecting event or while there is snake handling equipment in my vehicle, I will at least have the license. The only con to this is that it is still technically not legal to collect from an active roadway, such as the low traffic road you've chosen for your road cruise. So, if you DO feel the need to move a snake out of the roadway for fear of it being killed despite the low traffic, it will be pretty hard for someone to believe you are not collecting if you look and behave like a herper. I've never had any issues. These are just things I hear from herpers.
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