Pura Vida 6: Lizards and Turtles of the Bosque

A Thecadactylus rapicauda found outside of a lab building one night.

Sphenomorphus cherriei I startled up from some litter. This skink species is difficult to bring to hand.

Sceloporus variabilis from Guanacaste's dry forest.

Norops limifrons, the slender anole, a common species.

Norops lemurinis. I would find individuals of this species sleeping at night, perched on leaves as above. It seems like they would make easy prey for arboreal snakes, like Leptodeira.

Norops humilus, the most common anole. Male's of this species have an red dewlap fringed by yellow.

Norops carpenteri, readily identified by the white eye ring. Males have an orange dewlap rimmed with yellow.

Lepidophyma flavimaculata, my first night lizard of the family Xantusidae. These are most often found by flipping cover objects. Occasionally they are found foraging nocturnally at the mouth of their homes (hole of some sort).

Lepidoblepharis xanthostigma, flipped by my brother. This is the only shot I got off before they poor animal dropped his tail.

Unidentified Norops species?

Iguana iguana.

Gonatodes albogularis captured on a building.

Corytophanes cristattus, a super badass lizard.

Chelydra acutirostris. Imagine my surprise when I pulled a damn snapping turtle out of a swamp.... in Costa Rica??? This was a super feisty individual who snapped incessantly at me.

Rhinoclemmys annulata can be found chilling in the middle of a trails, nowhere near water.

A large Rhinoclemmys funerea with a 10 inch long carapace. I found this species both in and out of the swamps.

Hawai'i Teaser...

Ahh the wonders of modern technology, thanks to Molly's Panasonic Lumix.

Enjoy...

BH

No viagra needed

These turtles are appropriately named...


I recently started back up in the emergency department, and have been extremely busy as a result. While other people enjoyed the holiday weekend, I labored. Luckily despite working Fri overnight and Monday day shifts, I had sat/sun off. I took advantage of the opportunity to head up north with a few friends for a night of camping. Most camp sites were booked, but our friends new some people with land and a farm so all it took was convincing the ladies that bathrooms are over rated before we were in action. My role in all of this was slim. I got off work around 830 am on Sat, rushed home and jumped into a packed car. Molly said I soon stopped making sense, and I ended up in the back of the car with Cid. After a two hour nap we were hanging out on the beach of Lake Huron.

Cid and I took to the shoreline and quickly turned up a skink, my first Michigan specimen. Unfortunately, it quickly escaped into the sand. Later we loaded up 3 cars, a couple 4 wheelers and headed out to the property. To get to the campsite we have to off road one of the cars and both 4 wheelers a few miles back, then make a few trips with the 4 wheelers and hike in the rest of the way. It was a production, but it was fun and really got us out there in the woods. Right around our campsite I was able to flip 5 red-bellied snakes and a couple skinks.

Displaying the red-bellied "lip curling" defensive behavior

The next morning we had to repeat the whole process nice and early to get to our canoe appointment an hour away. I managed to snap this quick shot of one of the fields on our way out in the early morning fog.



The canoe trip was a blast. Cid hopped right in and Molly turned out to be quite the paddler. Our river was wide, deep and cold and ended up providing some great photographic opportunities.



I saw plenty of painted turtles along the first half of the trip. Eventually I noticed a turtle from afar that looked a little different. Imagine my surprise to see this wood turtle basking (same turtle as first above photo)!


After leaving the turtle, we go 10 yards down stream and I see an orange head looking at me from a log!



This turtle was much larger... Molly really proved her metal here. We had already passed the turtle and were being swept out of range of photographs. While I messed with the camera, she began to paddle furiously from the front and was able to paddle upstream, in reverse while I took pictures. Much to my initial dismay she maneuvered the canoe to within 4 feet of the animal and parked it on the same log jam as the turtle, which didn't move a muscle!?!



After that we continued on and another log jam 15-20 yards away I spot yet another wood turtle... I grabbed a quick voucher shot and tried to catch our friends. They were busy exploring a beach, so I convinced Molly to paddle the 100 yards back up stream to take another look at the turtle. It was still there, and on a collision course with a group of drunk tubers. We positioned ourselves for pictures...



Three wood turtles in the span of a few minutes and about 50 yards of river, I could never have asked for a better turtling experience. Even Molly and Cid enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. It is just my luck that there are plenty of more rivers to explore in Michigan. Unfortunately, time is running short. Winter is coming... (any GRRM fans out there?)

Long Weekend of Herping

My brother Brian headed up a couple weeks ago to spend a few days camping and canoeing with me and my dog Cid in northern Michigan. (You may have already seen a couple of the pictures below in a previous post entitled New Field Partner) Molly had plans to head into the big city, and the boys took advantage to get the hell out of it.

The trip started by getting together with some other like minded people at the Midwest PARC meeting. I felt bad just attending the first field trip day and skipping out on the actual conference, but I don't get days off very often, and we had big plans for the other days. PARC (Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) is a wonderful organization dedicated to conservation of herps and their habitats. PARC is made up of people from all walks of life, and really works to break down barriers between different groups of people to try and encourage cooperation in working towards common goals. Membership is comprised of academics, zoo institutions, government, students and hobbyists.

The first day of the meeting was spent surveying the grounds of the nature center where the meetings were held. We showed up a little early to help set up some turtle traps to check at the end of the day.

Working hard to bait and set the traps.

Max, one of the interns, also got nominated to place the traps.

The rest of the day was a blast and turned up some interesting creatures. Despite it being the middle of August, Ambystomids were the most commonly found creatures. We turned up a bunch of Ambystoma laterale-ish looking creatures.

And one of the bigger highlights were a few tiger salamanders, Ambystoma tigrinum.


Other animals included painted turtles, wood frogs, spring peepers, american toads, eastern gartersnakes, brown snakes and tree frogs.


The next day, Brian and I headed out for our first day of canoeing. We had a decent drive ahead of us, and got off to a little later of a start than we wanted due to a great BBQ the night before.

En route we checked out a few nice back roads, and couldn't resist stopping to flip logs and objects of cover. Oddly, we totally struck out, except for these interesting eggs. I haven't seen any skinks in Michigan yet, but I am fairly certain this is the nest of a female Five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus. Unfortunately, she was not to be found nearby.


We pulled into the livery right around noon, and were on the river in a span of about 30 minutes.

Cid wasn't too excited about this canoe thing.


Right from the start we were seeing common map turtles. I convinced Brian that they were fairly easy to catch with the right technique, and he quickly decided to give it a go.

Here he is practicing the wrong technique. He needs to be even lower in the water.


And after his failure...


He had plenty of opportunities to refine his skill though. We ended up seeing 60+ map turtles and got our hands on quite a few.




Here are some of the fruits of our labor.

Same turtle as above, a couple seconds before the action picture.





We also managed to see one of Michigan's iconic turtles, the Blandings Turtle. Not as commonly seen actually on rivers, this one was found in a slow wide section of the stream.


After returning the canoe we tried to find some more spots to flip cover but ended up driving aimlessly for a while. We decided to head west to a new area, and set up camp there for the next two nights. This ended up being a good idea, but I will have to fill you in about that at a later date.

Buckeye or Wolverine?

Actually, both...

I realized all the posts on my "buckeye" herping blog were actually from Michigan. Seems to me there is a bit of false advertisement going on here...

I have grown up in Michigan and Ohio. The last 10 years of my life were basically spent living in various parts of Ohio as I traveled around for school. It is during this time I really started to get outdoors more and actually herp.

I herped Ohio hard. Initially, I was mainly interested in things that had always fascinated me, such as rattlesnakes. My interests expanded and I began to really enjoy all reptiles and amphibians. While my posts so far have primarily been reptile based, I can assure you I don't discriminate in regards to the presence of a larval stage of development. In my fervor, I started to try and see every reptile and amphibian in Ohio. This was important to me for a little while, and although I am very close, I realized I would rather spend my time meeting more specific herp goals.

Recently though, I moved to Michigan. Michigan holds new challenges and new rewards. My posts have been centered around Michigan, because they reflect my most recent projects and trips. I can assure you more Ohio stuff is on the way soon.

I leave today for a multi-day trip to the north. It will be my first attempt at herping with my dog, a pure bred Detroit mutt. It should be a good time.

As promised though, here are some classic Ohio turtles.


Eastern Box Turtle found spring of '08


Smooth Softshell Turtle, in the evening glow
And a Common Map Turtle sharing a log with a Midland Painted Turtle, although shot in Michigan, both are common Ohio species. I just wanted to post the 2 for 1 shot.

Plenty more awesome Ohio turtles out there. Hopefully we can discuss them in further depth soon.