T
troy
Guest
I had found a good population of Plethodon albagula earlier in the year along some very wet road cuts about 25 miles north of my house in the western hill country (new county records - westernmost known population). I suspected that they had to be found further west, but had always assumed that the canyon I lived in was not wet enough . . .
Anyway, I stayed home today with my daughter (100 degrees fever) . . . when my wife got home, I cut out to do some form of herping. Didn't have much time, so just went out on the county roads right by my house. One of them cuts a nice damp canyon . . . as I was driving up the road I thought "what the heck" and stopped to flip some rocks at the base of the road cut - first rock, a tiny baby Plethodon albagula . . . so I flipped a couple of more, then a board and got a second. Flipped a couple of more rocks, then got a mid-sized adult. Also flipped an Eumeces tetragrammus and a Scincella lateralis.
Had to run to the store for Nyquil and Gatorade . . . when I got back, I decided to see if I couldn't nail a Plethodon here on the property (I had originally assumed that our place wasn't quite moist enough) . . . with them only about a mile away, I figured we had to have some . . . after about 30-45 minutes of work, finally got to the wettest spot on the hillsides, and flipped 2 juveniles. So now the westernmost known P. albagula is about a mile west of my house . . . until I get one further west!
Troy
Anyway, I stayed home today with my daughter (100 degrees fever) . . . when my wife got home, I cut out to do some form of herping. Didn't have much time, so just went out on the county roads right by my house. One of them cuts a nice damp canyon . . . as I was driving up the road I thought "what the heck" and stopped to flip some rocks at the base of the road cut - first rock, a tiny baby Plethodon albagula . . . so I flipped a couple of more, then a board and got a second. Flipped a couple of more rocks, then got a mid-sized adult. Also flipped an Eumeces tetragrammus and a Scincella lateralis.
Had to run to the store for Nyquil and Gatorade . . . when I got back, I decided to see if I couldn't nail a Plethodon here on the property (I had originally assumed that our place wasn't quite moist enough) . . . with them only about a mile away, I figured we had to have some . . . after about 30-45 minutes of work, finally got to the wettest spot on the hillsides, and flipped 2 juveniles. So now the westernmost known P. albagula is about a mile west of my house . . . until I get one further west!
Troy