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A weekend in VA-Part 1 (Pic heavy)

Greatwtehunter

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Well, I figure it's about darn time I start contributing to this section and I thought what better way than a 2-part series. This will be part 1, which is everything we (as in the wife and kids) found on Saturday. This weekend was a fairly typical weekend for me and the area I herped has the potential to be even more rewarding but alas the weather wasn't the best. Speaking of weather; Saturday's weather was snow showers in the morning with partly sunny skies that afternoon while Sunday's weather was cold, windy, and very bright. Now onto the pictures!

We started the day out in woodland habitat while in the midst of a small snow shower.
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After only a few minutes we started finding these guys, Desmognathus ochrophaeus (Mountian Dusky Salamander). These guys were everywhere, and this species has ALOT of variation in them so everytime I found one it was always a little different than the last one.
Dusky-1a.jpg



Shortly later I flipped this Eurycea wilderae (Blue-Ridge Two-lined Salamander). Pay close attention the tail, I'll be explaining that later on. ;)
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This shot shows what some of the scenery was like as well as what the weather was like during the morning hours.
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Wasn't long before the sun started shining and we found our first reptile, this Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis (Eastern Garter Snake). I love the rust color it had on it's side.
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I was surprised to see this Bufo americanus (American Toad) out and about during daylight hours.
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What I was also surpised about was how long it took us to find our first Plethodon cinereus (Red Back Salamander). But when we did start finding them they were everywhere to. It wasn't uncommon to find 2 or 3 under the same piece of cover.
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The final type of salamander we found before heading to our next spot was this Desmognathis wrighti (Pygmy Salamander). We found quite a few of these as well. Unfortunately the herring bone pattern doesn't really show up to well on this indvidual.
Dwrighti-2a.jpg


As we were walking back to the vehicle Tyler, my youngest child, about tripped over this huge Terrapene carolina carolina (Eastern Box Turtle)! He was so excited that he found it all by himself.
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We spent the second half of the day along a nice mountain stream, which for some reason I can't find pictures of, as well as a few others. :rolleyes:

The first creature we found here was Storeria occipitomaculata (Redbelly Snake).
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Obviously you can see why it's named a redbelly snake.
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One of the highlights of this trip was this Gyrinophilus porphyriticus danielsi (Blue-Ridge Spring Salamander).
SpringSal-1a.jpg


Along this particular stream we found tons of Eurycea cirrigera (Southern Two-lined Salamander). The easiest way to tell this species from E. wilderae is that on the E. wilderae the two lines start to break up into large spots at the tail base, also they are much brighter than E. cirrigera or E. bislineata.
Ecirrigera-1a.jpg


Here is one of the many juvenile Desmognathus fuscus fuscus (Northern Dusky Salamander) we found. Never did find any adults at this site for some reason.
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I love this picnic shelter for some reason.
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Finally the last species of the day we found was this Storeria dekayi dekayi (Northern Brown Snake).
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And that's how we finished out Saturday.
 

vide

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Very nice. Thanks for posting! Looking forward to part two.

Cheers,

Vide
 

huug

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Justin,

Lucky you! That´s paradise!
Can´t wait to know what happend on sunday!

I especially like the E.wilderae and the G.p. danielsi!
Appreciate the sharing, thanks!
 

John

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Very nice report and great photos - thanks for sharing, Justin. I'm particularly envious of the Spring Salamander. I need to have another shot at them here before winter sets in.

It wasn't uncommon to find 2 or 3 under the same piece of cover.
Bah, I find 5-6 at a time under wood in my garden :p.
 
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