THS Spring Meet 2002

Every year since 1939, except for a couple of years during WWII (and the spring of 2001 – but that’s another story), the Texas Herpetological Society has held a Spring Field Meet. The society usually tries to meet in different areas of the state each year, often in a county where the herpetofauna is poorly surveyed. This year’s Spring Meet was just east of lovely Lubbock, Texas (home of the giant feed lot!).

Marla, Cheyenne, and I got up early Friday morning (April 26, 2002) and headed west. It had rained a lot (12”!) in the Shackelford County area, and we wanted to stop and try for milksnakes there. The only thing we found there were drowned mice (Perognathus and Peromyscus), and we did hear some Pseudacris clarki calling in the fields. It had really rained too much and too hard here – there were literally drifts of hailstones that had accumulated in the low spots, and rocks had been washed off the road cuts. We continued on towards Lubbock, but only found one DOR bullsnake on the way.

We arrived at Lubbock at the Fabulous V8 Ranch in the mid-afternoon. It was cold and misty . . . and we were downwind of the feed lots! We did hike around a little bit that afternoon, finding some large sheets of metal in an old gravel pit . . . we (of course) also found a few herps there: 2 Crotalus atrox, 1 Masticophis flagellum, and 2 Crotaphytus collaris.

Saturday (4/27) morning we got up, drove to the south side of the property, and hunted a variety of rock outcrops there. Dad also brought a bunch of his high school students. We found surprisingly few herps: 4 Diadophis punctatus, 1 Sonora semiannulata, 1 Crotalus atrox, 2 Eumeces obsoletus, 3 Bufo debilis, and 1 Acris crepitans.

habitat, V8 Ranch a few miles east of Lubbock

one of several green toads we found under rocks

I found 4 of these little guys under rocks. In this area, they have a slightly longer body indicating intergradation/hybridization with the regal ringneck.

We went back to camp, and ate lunch. After lunch, Dad, a couple of his students, and I hiked the southeast corner of the property for a couple of hours. Again, we found surprisingly few herps: 1 Masticophis flagellum, sev Crotaphytus collaris, sev Sceloporus undulatus, and 1 Cophosaurus texanus.

one of several coachwhips we found. this one was out crawling during the heat of the day

Dad actually managed to grab this greater earless with his hand as it sat basking on a rock under a bush.

After we got done with hiking, Marla & I decided to drive around the area looking for “tin spots”. We also really wanted to get out from being downwind of the feed lot! We ended up finding a few herps, and 2 decent tin spots: 1 Heterodon platyrhinos (DOR), 1 Trachemys scripta (AOR), 1 Kinosternon flavescens (DOR), 1 Terrepene ornata (AOR), 1 Crotalus atrox, 3 Masticophis flagellum, and 1 Eumeces obsoletus (the last 3 species under tin at the 2^nd spot).

This atrox was found under some corrugated sheet metal at an old barn site in Garza County. I never touched the snake.

After the catered fish & chicken dinner, I took a couple of Dad’s students out road-cruising for amphibians. It was really pretty cool, and we didn’t find much: 1 Bufo woodhousei, 2 Scaphiopus multiplicata, 1 Scaphiopus bombifrons, and 2 DOR Kinosternon flavescens.

Woodhouse's Toad found near the Ranch HQ at night

one of the New Mexico Spadefoots I found on the road at nite

Got up Sunday (4/28) morning and had “show and tell”, took pictures of the herps that were found on and around the ranch, and then everyone parted ways. On the way home, we found a variety of herps (mostly roadkills) including 2 live yellow mud turtles and 2 live Texas Horned Lizards, as well as several DOR Coachwhips. We again stopped at the Shackleford County road cuts, again found lots of drowned rodents, including several Neotoma. We did find 1 milksnake shed skin at a cut that we hadn’t hunted before, and found 1 Sonora semiannulata and 1 Diadophis punctatus.

THS campsite morning of show and tell	My dad (in straw hat), some of his students, and THS members
Vernon Dye, THS editor shoots a coachwhip digitally. The stage is on the tailgate of Alan Byboth's truck.	A very pretty, large Tiger Salamander found the first night by THS President-elect Julie Norman