Garcon Point Preserve

West Campus wasn't my only venture last Saturday. It just takes me a while to get these things down in a post. Didn't see a lot at Garçon Point Preserve. It was hot and coming on noon so there wasn't a lot of wildlife out. Some wrens, rails, and cuckoos. A racer and a ribbon snake. What really struck me about the park was the amount of wildflowers and insects. I'd love to go back with a good butterfly net. There were lots of these whitish-coloured bees and a fantastic diversity of butterflies and dragonflies that I wouldn't dare try to identify right now.

I believe these lovely wildflowers (which were covered in those white bees, by the way) are Phlox.

A sulfer butterfly (Phoebis sennae).

Anolis carolinensis among the Serenoa.

Herping after Dawn in the Florida Panhandle

A little late in coming, but I did go check my minnow trap at West Campus bright and early Saturday morning. Nothing. I could see some nice sized bass swimming around in the water but none of them would have fit in the trap. I'll have to try again in a different place were the fish aren't so large. And maybe I'll use some bait.

Anyways, I thought, the morning is young, so I went herping for the rest of the morning. Found a few dandy critters right there at West Campus including a few more leopard frogs (Rana sphenocephala) and lots of cricket frogs (Acris).

I had been hoping to find another cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) or maybe a rattlesnake (Crotalus) because I had an audience (two of my coworkers/friends from the college came with me to pull up the trap). However, I didn't find anything venomous. This baby racer (Coluber constrictor) put on quite a show though. "Bit" me three or four times before I got the photos I was hoping for. Never broke the skin.

Herping after Dark in the Florida Panhandle

Here's a post from someone you haven't heard recently. I've been busy--very busy. It is not unusual for me to work 14 hours in a day and 9 hours is a short one. I worked hard this week and managed to keep up with all the homework and quiz grading common in the life of a college biology teacher. At the end of the day I rolled out of work at 4:00pm. Nine hours. After a quick dinner and an episode of John Acorn's Nature Nut show I grabbed my Nikon and a minnow trap and danced out the door.
Sometimes I have to schedule my moments of enjoyment just as religiously as my work and education. I'd been planning a trip out to set my minnow trap for a couple weeks and a Friday night seemed like a good time to me. However, my graduate class was hanging over my head as I pulled from the campus and I'm hoping I don't regret my choice of activity for the night. Good grades are encouraging but it's no excuse to procrastinate.
I had hoped to set a minnow trap at Tarkiln Bayou but that is a state park and I imagine it would be less than legal to remove any fish or wildlife from the park. However, I couldn't think of anywhere else to go. Whenever I have questions about the local wildlife I always find my way to Mr. Micah Bowman's office. A tall, lanky man with relaxed enthusiasm for zoology, Mr. Bowman spent his childhood in the panhandle and is far more adept at finding cool critters than I could ever hope to be. I asked my fellow faculty member if there were any places he could recommend for a minnow trap. His answer, always nonchalant, was so obvious I was embarrassed. West Campus was college property and fishing was encouraged.

I nailed these photos of a grass pickerel (Esox americanus) at Tarkiln Bayou last year (2014) near the end of November. I have been hoping to get a couple for my 120 gallon aquarium back home.

Yes, they are cannibals. My aquarium has three turtles at the present so trying to put some fish in there might be a bad idea. Sunfish would be nice but I find the predatory pickerel completely fascinating. I pulled the trap from the back of my minivan and made the short jaunt to the slough.
As I approached the rickety bridge over the algae-choked waters I spotted a black disk lying in the grass. It was just passed 7pm and the battery was low on my headlamp. I had to get close to see that it was a small cottonmouth snake (Agkistrodon piscivorus). Cottonmouths have a highly hemolytic venom that causes blood cells to rupture and tissues to break down, practically rotting off. However, I was delighted. In my excitement I ran back to my van to grab my ever-handy snake tongs and returned to where I'd dropped my trap before long. The snake was still there and I caught the snake without too much of a fuss. One strike and some degree of warning. It amazes me how placid these potentially lethal snakes are. This one seemed to have an especially calm disposition. The characteristic wide-open mouth display is an obvious message to threats. I carried the snake to the beach and took a few photos on the sand. Delightful.

Pumped with herpetological enthusiasm, I released the snake and started searching for more reptiles and amphibians with my headlamp. A southern toad (Bufo terrestris) hopped out of my way and soon I was running around the grass giggling like a four year old catching frogs.

Rana sphenocephala, the leopard frog. Loads of fun chasing these guys through the grass and catching them.

In the end I threw my trap over the bridge and watched it sink to the bottom. I tied the knot and headed back to my van. It was a good time and I don't regret it yet.