Jefferson
Active member
Among herpetologists, South Carolina is not known for rice plantations, Charles Pinckney, secessionists, and Andrew Jackson's native Waxhaw region, but rather for its diverse array of Deep Southern salamanders, frogs, and turtles, along with the world-famous American Alligator. In pursuit of all of these, I left my college home in Lexington, Virginia for the Southland last Saturday.
After changing my car's battery, we started south in what we thought was a fixed car, failing to find Mabee's Salamanders and Southern Red Salamanders in some beautiful sandhills pine habitat, but seeing a few species of frog that eluded capture, the Carpenter Frog among them. We ended that night in Berkeley County, SC and planned to hit a few locales in the Francis Marion National Forest the next day, but, on the way to the first spot, after passing through a town called "Coward, SC" (yes, this is a real town), the car lost all power and limped along the shoulder. Herping, needless to say, became the least of our concerns for a bit.
We took a tow truck to an auto repair shop and booked a motel next door, which conveniently had a pond behind it reputed to have Alligators, of which I didn't see any but did see some Yellow-Bellied Slider Turtles (lifer #1). My dad, in a panic over our plight, started driving down from Michigan to get us and take us back to Lexington if the car couldn't be diagnosed. He arrived at 4am that next morning. However, at 9am, the car was diagnosed and fixed a short time later as my brother, father, and herping companion were photographing some Green Anoles in the National Forest, after my brother sighted a White Ibis in the parking lot.
The car now fixed, we continued to another spot further west into the South Carolina Coastal Plain as an impromptu family herping posse, flipping a few Atlantic Coast Slimy Salamanders and scoring a Marbled Sally near where a Pine Woods Treefrog was hopping around but striking out with Dwarf Salamanders.
On the final day for us, which started in an Augusta, GA hotel, a spot in the first line of Upper Piedmont hills yielded a Webster's Salamander, and a little seepage area further up into the Sandhills, reputed to have the Chamberlin's Dwarf Salamander present, gave up an Eastern Mud Salamander adult with half a tail instead, along with a Southern Cricket Frog.
Trip Total-3 salamander lifers, 6 herp lifers, 1 new state, 5 new counties.
Happy herping y'all!
Jefferson
After changing my car's battery, we started south in what we thought was a fixed car, failing to find Mabee's Salamanders and Southern Red Salamanders in some beautiful sandhills pine habitat, but seeing a few species of frog that eluded capture, the Carpenter Frog among them. We ended that night in Berkeley County, SC and planned to hit a few locales in the Francis Marion National Forest the next day, but, on the way to the first spot, after passing through a town called "Coward, SC" (yes, this is a real town), the car lost all power and limped along the shoulder. Herping, needless to say, became the least of our concerns for a bit.
We took a tow truck to an auto repair shop and booked a motel next door, which conveniently had a pond behind it reputed to have Alligators, of which I didn't see any but did see some Yellow-Bellied Slider Turtles (lifer #1). My dad, in a panic over our plight, started driving down from Michigan to get us and take us back to Lexington if the car couldn't be diagnosed. He arrived at 4am that next morning. However, at 9am, the car was diagnosed and fixed a short time later as my brother, father, and herping companion were photographing some Green Anoles in the National Forest, after my brother sighted a White Ibis in the parking lot.
The car now fixed, we continued to another spot further west into the South Carolina Coastal Plain as an impromptu family herping posse, flipping a few Atlantic Coast Slimy Salamanders and scoring a Marbled Sally near where a Pine Woods Treefrog was hopping around but striking out with Dwarf Salamanders.
On the final day for us, which started in an Augusta, GA hotel, a spot in the first line of Upper Piedmont hills yielded a Webster's Salamander, and a little seepage area further up into the Sandhills, reputed to have the Chamberlin's Dwarf Salamander present, gave up an Eastern Mud Salamander adult with half a tail instead, along with a Southern Cricket Frog.
Trip Total-3 salamander lifers, 6 herp lifers, 1 new state, 5 new counties.
Happy herping y'all!
Jefferson
, super beautiful place!! You should come down and see it, you'll definitely see an alligator or two if you go out to fripp or hunting island!! hope you have a great road trip!