16/624 – 4/21-22

 Marla, Cheyenne, and I decided that we needed to go “down south” for a night’s road-cruising – hopefully to find the numbers and diversity that South Texas is known for (and an annulata would have been nice, too!). 

We arrived at Choke Canyon State Park’s Calliham Unit at around 3:30 in the afternoon and set up camp at the tent camping area by the 30 acre lake.  There was a 4-5’ alligator near the lakeshore when we arrived and he never really went anywhere all afternoon.  I was able to get some decent photographs of him, as he let us approach pretty closely.  We also saw another alligator in the lake nearby, but not quite as close or approachable.  Besides the alligators, we found a dead Nerodia rhombifer on the lakeshore (probably killed by a fisherman), a large adult female Texas spiny in a mesquite by camp, and heard Acris crepitans calling around the lake.

We left to go roadcruising at ~7:30 p.m.  We first cruised over to a gravel county road that follows the McMullen/LaSalle County line. On the way over there, and down the county road, we found a DOR Masticophis schotti, a DOR Crotalus atrox, and a DOR 4’ Texas Indigo Snake (Drymarchon corais).  We then hunted fm 624 from about 8:30 until about 11:00, and found 8 live and 1 DOR atrox, including a 6’ adult seen twice, at 8:50 and again at 10:15.  We also found a DOR Texas Horned Lizard.  After 11, we headed back up TX 16 to camp, and found 3 more live atrox and 1 dead.

Back at camp just after midnight, we found 26 Hemidactylus tursicus on the bathroom, and 2 Bufo valliceps hopping around camp.  There were also several of these toads calling along the lakeshore.

Got up with the sun and bird watched around the lake – basically saw the usual variety of south Texas birds.  We meandered our way across south Texas, back through Carrizzo Springs and Uvalde, then up through the hill country, passing through Kerrville, Fredricksburg, and San Saba.  On the way, found 2 DOR atrox, 3 DOR coachwhips and 1 AOR coachwhip, 1 unid probably ribbon snake, and 2 Sonora semiannulata under a roadside rock in Hamilton County.