trip to E USA

For your reports/images, made outside Europe and the "Mediterranean" countries. Not to be too narrow minded and limited to our European/Mediterranean herps.

Re: trip to E USA

Postby Neil Rowntree » Tue Aug 11, 2015 9:34 pm

Some good stuff Jeroen - seems you managed the herps/family balancing act quite well!

How close were you to the likes of Cemophora coccinea and that delightful heap of Nerodia?
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Martti Niskanen » Tue Aug 11, 2015 10:12 pm

Great stuff, Jeroen!
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Matthijs Hollanders » Tue Aug 11, 2015 11:01 pm

Nice! Some familiar sites, loved the salamanders.
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Bastien Comment » Wed Aug 12, 2015 11:21 am

Great report, thanks for sharing! The Timber Rattlesnake is my favorite ;)
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Wed Aug 12, 2015 2:04 pm

Many thanks to all!

Kristian Munkholm wrote:no Clemmys or Chelydra (or Pseudemys nelsoni)???

Clemmys: would have been a target if it wasn’t a family trip, but seeing this species is said to be hard after spring.
Chelydra: they’re everywhere and nowhere, so I guess I just wasn’t lucky. Surely something I wanted to see (although ugly as hell).
Pseudemys nelsoni: now that’s funny – only now I googled some more and found out that one terrapin I saw in Okefenokee was this species and not a yellowbelly or chicken turtle, so thanks!
Guillaume Gomard wrote: After just 10m, I had 15 mosquitos on my face and around 30 on my clothes.

Well... Wouldn’t have hiked 5 or 6 scarlet snakes if I wouldn’t have borne that.
Guillaume Gomard wrote: Too bad for the Micrurus, it's not a common find I guess.

To tell you the truth I am much more found of their colubrid lookalikes and of vipers/rattlers than of corals. Dunno why, the expressionless little heads and their crazy behaviour maybe. Except the Malaysian blue coral, of course ;-).

Neil Rowntree wrote:How close were you to the likes of Cemophora coccinea and that delightful heap of Nerodia?

You mean my person? Or when taking these pictures? Within grabbing distance. The scarlet was even a posed picture, I have to admit.

Bastien Comment wrote:Great report, thanks for sharing! The Timber Rattlesnake is my favorite ;)

OK, but it was an ugly duckling compare to the Louisiana beauty last year (remember http://www.hylawerkgroep.be/jeroen/index.php?id=75).
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Kristian Munkholm » Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:53 pm

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:
Kristian Munkholm wrote:no Clemmys or Chelydra (or Pseudemys nelsoni)???

Clemmys: would have been a target if it wasn’t a family trip, but seeing this species is said to be hard after spring.


I'm surprised to hear that - remember seeing plenty spending summers in the eastern US as a kid.

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:Chelydra: they’re everywhere and nowhere, so I guess I just wasn’t lucky. Surely something I wanted to see (although ugly as hell).


Along with bullfrogs and painted turtles (we were a little further north) they were the easiest, most abundant species of my childhood found seemingly everywhere and always so that just seems weird but ah well - just one of those things, I guess. I'd happily trade a few for any of about 60 other species on that list, though...

Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:Pseudemys nelsoni: now that’s funny – only now I googled some more and found out that one terrapin I saw in Okefenokee was this species and not a yellowbelly or chicken turtle, so thanks!


You're welcome :)

...just noticed another surprise "non entry" - Scincella lateralis? I wouldn't bother to target it but I would certainly have thought it one of those species that just pops up as bycatch - must be the season, I guess...
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:02 pm

Well, I am of course only going on what I think I have been told about those turtles, so I may be wrong and your description may be closer to the truth. If you would have given me good spots, I would certainly have hunted at least Clemmys :P.

Yes, Scincella. And Notophtalmus. And Pseudacris. There's quite a few of weird absentees there. Some are maybe more common in less pristine habitats - after all, I spent a lot of time in damp, shady woods. I also focused on nighttime herping - because it's my thing and because it agrees better with family (because I could hardly ever hike more than 1-2km in a go with my son). As a final lame excuse: skinks and (most) turtles are not too high on my wishlist. Normally my wishlist is identical to the species list of the area, but not with family in the mix...
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Kristian Munkholm » Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:08 pm

All my Clemmys spots were north of Washington (though some just barely) rather than south, so...

Besides, spots that were good decades ago might be very different today.

But anyway, hugely impressed with your list (even more so given that this is family time herping), certainly makes me want to go back :)
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Peter Oefinger » Wed Aug 12, 2015 4:14 pm

Beautiful variety of Salamanders - Why do they have so many species compared to Europe...
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Re: trip to E USA

Postby Bobby Bok » Wed Aug 12, 2015 8:50 pm

Dear God Jeroen, what a specieslist for family herping! Love the variety of salamanders and all those iconic mammals as well, the manatees alone would be a reason to revisit the USA :D I think my better half will also drag me across the Atlantic again sooner or later...

Peter Oefinger wrote:Beautiful variety of Salamanders - Why do they have so many species compared to Europe...


That would be the influence of the ice ages / lack of refugia I guess...
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