Memorial Day Weekend in ANF
Let me take you back…back to a simple time. A time when you could go further on a tank of gas. Yes, a time
before gas was $4.00 a gallon. I’m talking about…Memorial Day weekend, May, 2008!
Yvonne and I pulled out of the farm Friday evening to meet Mark Kenderdine and his wife, Trudy, for a long
weekend in Apalachicola National Forest. Driving up, with a sizable head start, was another herper named Chuck (a tin
flipping wild man) out of Lake City. Chuck is a tin magnet. If there’s tin, Chuck will find it.
Yvonne and I arrived at our destination in Midway and checked in for the night. I called Chuck on the cell and he
said he was just around the corner. A few moments later he was knocking on the door to tell us about his night of road
cruising. I don’t remember all of his findings however, he did bring back this very nice Northern Scarlet snake,
Cemophora coccinea copei, to photograph and release.
Mark and Trudy got a late start so they would not arrive until Saturday around noon. Early Saturday morning we
went to meet Chuck for breakfast, but not until I changed the right rear tire on the truck…yes I had a flat! After
breakfast we set out for some tin spots he knew in the area and into south Georgia. We saw one snake, possibly a dark
phase Eastern hognose. I wasn’t fast enough and it disappeared into some thick grass and debris. Here are some
habitat photos that my wife took.
Check out the Kudzu.
Chuck and I battered and defeated. Chuck is on the right.
After all that fun we drove down to Torreya to meet Mark and Trudy at the Gregory House. This is one of my
favorite places…a must see if you visit Apalachicola National Forest.
Mark and Chuck.
Chuck, Mark and I took a walk down towards the river to see what we could find. Yvonne and Trudy stayed back
and relaxed in the shade. Mark has a great eye for small herps and critters and quickly found the following:
Flat-backed millipede and friend. Do you see the friend?
Ground Skink, Scincella lateralis.
Harvestman or Daddylongleg, Leiobunum.
Southern Ringneck snake, Diadophis punctatus punctatus.
Later we met Kenny (KW, a Herpetologist from FSU) and Nathaniel (an Entomologist type dude turned herper FSU
student) in ANF for some salamander dipping.
KW
Nathaniel
While we were all paying attention to the slimy things in the nets, Mark ran (well kinda ran...hopped) by use to check
out something big he saw crawl into the grass off the dirt road. Oh yea!! Mark is a master snake spotter no doubt!!
Check it out!!
Eastern Diamondback, Crotalus adamanteus.
After refilling the gas tank it was time to do some road cruising. We threw together a game plan that worked out
pretty well as we crossed paths with Mark and Chuck several times and even ran into KW and Nathaniel. At each
meeting we compared findings.
“We are having a better night than they are” I said to Yvonne. She just smiled and nodded as though giving me her
approval.
Here’s what Yvonne and I found.
Eastern Mud Snake, Farancia abacura abacura. This guy has suffered a head injury sometime in the past.
Appears to be blind.
Several Pygmy Rattlesnakes, Sistrurus miliarius barbouri.
This Eastern Narrowmouth toad, Gastrophryne carolinensis, was an interesting find.
Although this Eastern Garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis, was found alive on road (AOR). It was hit by a
vehicle and probably died later during the night.
This brownish Gray rat snake, Elaphe obsoleta spiloides.
Sunday morning Yvonne and I traveled the back roads around Torreya in search of my favorite snake, the Florida
Pine snake, Pituophis melanoleusus mugitus. We found plenty of tracks that I believe were from this great snake,
however we never saw the snake.
Eastern Fence lizard, Sceloporus undulatus.
Florida Harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex badius. Go ahead...put your hand down there.
Green anole, Anolis carolinensis.
Later we met KW, his wife Maria and their three wonderful daughters Maya, Kylie, and Eirinn. We went to a creek
were he explained the fine art of wading, as seen in the photo.
Didn’t see the target Queen snake, Regina septemvittata, however, we did see the following critters…not bad for a
walk in the creek.
Banded water snake, Nerodia fasciata fasciata.
Six-spotted fishing spiders, Dolomedes triton.
Beaver damage.
Habitat shot.
After a playing in the creek, we all went to a nearby Pizza Hut for dinner and some conversation…yep, Kenny is
quite a communicator and we enjoyed hanging out with him and his family very much.
Yvonne and I met up with Mark and Chuck after dinner to photograph a Southern Copperhead, Agkistrodon
contortrix contortrix, they found while flipping some tin.
While I was photographing the copperhead, Nathaniel called me on the Nextel. Yvonne and I went to meet with him
and his girl Martha before doing some night cruising. He had just found a really nice Gulf Coast box turtle. Why I didn’t
get a photo is beyond me.
As we were cruising south towards ANF, Nathaniel pulled over quickly while I was looking at what he was looking at
and nearly hit him in the rear. Check out this beauty.
Well, we saw several more Pygmy rattlesnakes and a few other night critters while cruising, including a couple dead
on road (DOR) diamondbacks and a DOR Red rat snake. It was getting late so we headed back to Midway.
The next morning we drove back to ANF to take photos of habitat and a few other things.
I leave you with these photos.
Longleaf Pine habitat. Scanned from Velvia 100 slide
I almost forgot, I photographed this beauty up the dirt road from the farm when I got back home.
Canebrake, Crotalus horridus atricaudatus.
Daniel
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