Jason Poston - Field Herpetology - PA, WV, SC

Eastern Box Turtle - Sept26th

spllogics — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:45:45 +0000

Tempature: 68F
Humidity: 82%
Pressure: 30.08 in.
Overcast and slight drizzle of rain.

My lower back has been giving me a lot of trouble all week, knotted muscles or something. So I didn’t get out much expt like a little 15 min hike here an there. I had invited my friend Bob C. up to a few of my local areas to have a look around and see if we could find anything and our main target was Box turtles. I had an area from alst year I wanted to check out, though my back told me NO, I decided not to make that climb and just check out some other areas for other things.

Well about 30 mins in to our walk though a part were there are some pools and wetland areas and checking out some ravine and spotted habitat I saw what we were looking for.

Male eastern box turtle:

Bob:

Other Stuff encountered:
Spotted Salamander (same as before)
2 Ravine Salamanders
10+ Bull Frog Tads
Peepers Calling
1 DOR Garter

Sept 19th Good stuff

spllogics — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:42:27 +0000

Meet up wit Bob C. today at 9:30 to do some things for a exhibit tommorow at one of the local colleges. Had a pretty good time there. Then we were definatly in herp mode today and took a trip a little more south to Fayette County.

Hit a few spots myself and John have been to a few times. Lost time for two hours then we desided to check on the copperhead population that everyone knows exist but noone I know has ever seen one. Good thing Bob was there cause I would have never found them where they were. But it was alot of searching to find one then we were on a roll.

Westmoreland County
10+ Redbacks Salamander
10+ Twolineds Salamander
5+ Northern Duskys Salamander
5+ Mtn. Duskys Salamander
2 Slimy Salamander

3 Pickerel Frogs
5+ Green Frogs

Fayette County
10 + Green Frogs

5+ Twolineds Salamander
1 Seal Salamander
5+ Redbacks Salamander
5+ Mtn Duskys Salamander
1 Slimy Salamander
1 Newt
4 unided Ambystoma Resently transformed (maybe spotteds will see)

1 Garter snake- Bob
1 Queen snake- Bob
3 Copperhead -Only two photographed* Have to give bob credit for these.
1 Copperhead Shed
1 Garter Shed
3 Queen Sheds

Bob Looking for the “Poisonous snakes” The Sign told us about. LOL

Copperhead Shed - I think we are getting warmer-

Bob saw this a little ways down - Copper 1

Copper 2

Little Queen that Bob caught

Giant Slimy

Newt

Unided Ambystoma

Pickerel

Green Frog

Sept 14th Ravines

spllogics — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:50:15 +0000

Yeah I know. Havnt seen me post any of these in a while. I did find one here an there and me and kyra found one last weekend but i didnt post it.
Slowly starting to see some activity again.

Here are two found under a rock.

Adult found under a peice of metal.

Another juvi

An another juvi emerging from tunnel.

Sept. 11 2008 - Spotted Salamander

spllogics — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:15:53 +0000

A rather successful day. I was scheduled to meet up with one of my herping buddies, but we had to reschedule for next week, so off I went to one of the local spots to see if a group of Ravines were out and about. Was getting late so I decided not to stay to long and just flip a rock or two. The 1st rocks I flip was a Spotted Salamander *Lifer. Not really expecting to see one around this area and I gave up on finding them at this area awhile back after checking the vernal pools a few times on the other side of the ridge. I was quite content, but decided to search a little longer with no other results. I think my itinerary may have changed for the weekend.

Time:7:00PM
Air Temps-73f
Ground Temps-66f
Clear skies.

Spotted Salamander - 5.5cm

Till next time. Happy Herping.

Aug 19th Longtails

spllogics — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:09:47 +0000

Went to do a normal routine check of a Ravine Salamander spot and was going to pass though and try a new location, but I desided to do a little flipping around the Ravine spot first and with the 1st rock I flipped a Longtailed Salamander *Lifer. As much as I have researched this area the longtail was far from my mind of finding today. So I set up to take a photo…. Then my camera says No CF card. AH I left it at home. Now what? So I run back to the house grab my card and come back to take a few photos. Supriced by this find I started searching the area and came up with another longtail not far from the first one. Two in one day not bad for a lifer.

77F Cloudy

2 - Longtail Salamanders ****Lifer
5+ Northern Dusky Salamanders
1 Slimy Salamander
2 American Toads

Slimy:

Longtail one - 6.5cm

Longtail two - 12 cm

Aug 16th Westmoreland

spllogics — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:01:51 +0000

9 Pickerel Frogs
1 Northern Lepoard Frog
5+ Green Frogs

Pickerel Frogs

Northern Lepoard Frog

Westmoreland County Aug 01 08

spllogics — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:37:24 +0000

Myself and Bob C. meet up in Westmoreland County PA this evening for our targer species Northern Leopard Frogs. The 1st thing we spotted was a Pickerel and with in about 10 mins we finally caught it after it got away 10 diffrent times and hid under 3 diffrent logs.. We also saw another but were unable to get a photo. We also grabbed a Wood frog the 1st eaither of us have seen with in the area. And also a Mystery Snake which looked like a Earth Snake but far out of range. We will work the area again to determin this species at a later date.

For today:
5 Green Frogs
2 Pickerel Frogs
3 American Toads
1 Wood Frog
20+ Mtn Dusky Salamanders
5+ Northern Dusky Salamanders 1 with eggs
3 Twolined Salamanders
1 Slimy Salamander
1 Mystery Snake

Pickerel Frog

Wood Frog

A. Toad

Slimy Salamander

N. Dusky With eggs

June 22-26

spllogics — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:17:12 +0000

Just a few shots from the past few days.

Queen snakes

Painted Turtle:

Northern Waters:

DOR Rat Snake

Small American Toad

North WV - June 21 08

spllogics — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:25:05 +0000

A friend Will and I meet up down in Northern WV for a little herping to see what we could find in an area I have been to a few times in the past. I was wanting to check the area for Green Salamanders and Timbers but neither of those targets were aquired. Insted we did find a few things here an there that I have not found in this area yet.

1 Northern Water Snake
1 Ringneck Snake
4 Mtn Duskys Salamanders
3 Seal Salamanders
2 Northern Reds Salamander
1 Redback Salamander

Ringneck:

Mtn. Duskys:

Seals:

Reds:

Views:

South Carolina June 2008

spllogics — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:08:46 +0000

Headed down to SC with my daughter to visit my family. While I was there I got to get out and do some herping for a little bit here an there. Had some good luck. Most the target species I was aiming for I did not find as time was limited and the places were to far to work with during out stay. We were therr from May 31st - June 8th. Part of the week we went camping down near charleston, SC.

June 1st
Florence County
Out with my father for a few hours hitting a few landings and road crusing some areas.

1 marbled salamander
3 Southern Leapoard?
a few sliders
2 ground skinks,
1 5lined skink
1 copperhead
1 yellow rat
1 timber
1 dor racer
1 box turtle

Marbled Salamander:

Southern Leapoard:

Timber/Canebrake

Copperhead:

Rat Snake:

DOR Racer:

June 2nd
Clarendon County
Went out for an hour.

5+ 5lined skinks
2 ground skinks
2 narrowmouth Toads *Lifer
1 Southern Chorus Frog?
3 unided frogs jumping though the weeds. probably cricket
1 yellow-bellied slider

Southern Chorus Frog?

Narrowmouth Toad:

June 3rd - 6th
Charleston County
Things around the camp area.

1 Alligator
10+ Sliders
5+ Anoles
20+ Unided Tadpoles
Unided Frog (hopped away to fast)
A few Skinks
1 King Snake

Unided Tadpoles (Wood probably)

Eastern King Snake:

June 7th
Clarendon County
Went out with my friend Matt to a few spots.
Matt picked up ad DOR King and a AOR Glass Lizard on the way over.

Other than that we got
2 DOR rats
4 marbled sallys resently transformed
1 Narrow mouth toad
6 Water Dogs *Lifer
5 Dwarf Salamanders *Lifer
1 Green Tree Frog
2 Broadhead Skinks
5+ 5lined Skinks
5+ Racerunners
1 Racer

Marbled Salamanders:

Dwarf Waterdog and Dwarf Salamander:

Narrowmouth Toad:

Skinks and Glass Lizard

Eastern King Snake: