Winter Herp(ing) 2011

I can't title this "Winter Herps" unfortunately.  If you are looking for pics of herps or epic adventures in the snow, you should look elsewhere.  I can try and help show what desperate measures some midwestern herpers will go through during the doldrums of winter.

There isn't much to do around here this time of the year.  As mentioned previously, winter provides good opportunities to catch up on field notes, spend quality time with family, do some traveling, and maybe try for some salamanders.  Michigan's salamander diversity is less than stellar, but you can always give mudpuppies the old college try.  They can stay active year round and are often caught by ice fisherman.  We figured why not?

I met up with Nick and Dave to try for mudpups a few days before Christmas.  We planned to try and flip some flat rocks and maybe peek under the larger ones with cameras.  Wading through water at this time of the year creates some new problems.  Just walking in with your shoes or boots won't cut it, and I never even considered what would happen when I would try to flip rocks with my bare hands and arms.  Luckily, Dave had access to some long arm waterproof gloves.  These would prove invaluable, if we ever made it to the water...

On the drive in, the warm spell left ground that should be frozen hard, wet and muddy.  Dave had been warned, but we quickly were stuck.  And I mean stuck.

We tried packing sticks/logs under all the tires and pushing hard.  These efforts were fruitless.

We called for a tow, and were notified it would be a while to gather some chains.  We took this opportunity to actually try for some mudpups.  A couple hours later of searching, we remained empty handed, but the truck got towed out.

Notice the waders and gloves.  Not the most fashionable of statements, but key when looking for mudpuppies in the middle of December.

We tried another spot for another couple of hours, but success was not in the cards today.  I had managed to flood both my muck boots, and Dave flooded the gloves, so things ended a little more painful than they when we started.   If you add wet gear to the 35 F temps and extreme wind on the water, it made for a chilly day, and we were happy to finally get back in the cars.  We had started the day with high hopes, and I would have to say we ended up feeling a bit defeated.  Hopefully, we can take another stab at these guys later this winter.

Happy Herping!

BH  

Winter Herps December 2011

Already seems like ages ago now...

I was able to get home to northeast Ohio for a short 48 hour trip prior to the holidays.  It was unseasonably warm, in fact quite balmy in the 40s.  It rained pretty much the whole trip, but my brother Brian and I decided to try and hit the field anyway.  We headed north on 12/21/11 to focus on mountain dusky salamanders and maybe a red salamander if we were real lucky.  It poured most of the trip out there, but got pretty sunny just before arriving.  We met a buddy, Andy A., who joined us for the short hike.  About 5 minutes in I looked down to see a black stick along the board walk.  Brian and Andy had just walked right by it...

Black Ratsnake Pantherophis obsoletus

We were pleasantly surprised to say the least.  I would not have minded a Thamnophis, but this was a little unexpected.  It was quite cool appearing.  A few minutes into photographing it the heavens opened back up with a very cold rain.  We moved on, hoping it would find it's way back underground soon.

It poured hard the rest of the excursion and we got cold fast.  A short jaunt in a creek turned up a few mountain duskies, redbacks, northern two-lined salamanders.  We photographed them quickly and dejectedly called it quits.

Mountain Dusky Salamander Desmognathus ochrophaeus

Pardon the large particles of dust from my sensor...

It wasn't  a bad day for December though.  We found 4 species of herps in with little effort.  Just goes to show herps are out and active in seemingly unlikely conditions.  In regards to the salamandering, I would have rather chosen snow than the rain we had to fight through...

Happy Herping!

Jason

Go Wolverines!

Despite the name of the blog and the website, I am a Michigan Wolverine fan through and through.  Unfortunately, my wife, family and medschool roommates are all OSU buckeyes.  I wish I was better at picking friends...

THE big game was in Ann Arbor this year, so a bunch of us loaded up the cars and set out for a day of tail gating fun.  It was blustery and cold, but good times were had by all.

I grilled up some nice breakfast of eggs and sausage.  We had been up at 6 to get out there just after 7am.

Painful apparel...

Remind me why I even invited David?

David sleeping during the first half.  Weak sauce.

Quite the setup working here.  Actually one TV was nonfunctional, we couldn't get a borrowed satellite dish to work, and ended up resorting back to the rabbit ears you might notice on top of the van.  Well they worked, with nice crystal clear HD picture (except when the helicopter would fly over).

Good thing the good guys won (finally!)!

Klev - disgusted with the results.

Hail to the Victors!

Let's go wolverines on January 3rd as they take on the Virginia Tech Hokies in the Sugar Bowl!

BH

Lost and Found

I was digging through some folder files and found images that never got edited or posted from the spring.

I had spent a morning wandering around one of the local metroparks, hoping for a sunning massasauga rattlesnake.  None were out today, but I enjoyed some of the other flora and fauna that were available for my camera lens.

There was a large group of hikers following these poor cranes around.  They are typically very common in the park.

Sandhill Crane and chic

A fellow photographer pointed out some flowering yellow lady slipper orchids, Cypripedium calceolus.  I didn't end up with the images I was hoping for.  It was a valiant first effort...

Painted turtles were enjoying the sun.  Unfortunately, I have yet to see blandings at this location.

This small garter snake was basking in the reeds.

Near the end of the summer, we spent an afternoon trying for an adult fox snake.  None were to be found, be we found 8+ freshly hatched juveniles in a very small location.

Nice flip!

This little red-bellied snake was spotted on a northern Michigan back country road.  I am frequently surprised by the small snakes I manage to spot and often wonder what I still miss...

My last field day I spent looking for saugas and racers.  I managed to find the small sauga I mentioned in this post, as well as few blue racers.

That about does it for the end of my season in Michigan... I may have had a miraculous late December outing, but it is a story for another day.  All in all, it was a pretty awesome year.  I think I met a few of my Michigan goals, and I had some great adventures out of state.  There is more exciting news I have to share  as soon as I can get the pictures loaded up.  Until then, Happy Holidays everyone!

BH

Hockeytown!

Another Detroit Redwings season is well under way.  I have enjoyed quite a few games already, and look forward to a few more great months of hockey.  If you haven't ever been to a game at "the Joe" (Joe Louis Arena), you need to get there at least once.  It may be old, with crappy bathrooms, and seats that don't have cupholders, but it is a damn fine place to watch a good ol hockey game.

An exciting win a few weeks ago.

Did I mention the tradition?

Make sure to swing by Joe Louis on your way out as well.

Always a great night for hockey in Detroit.

Winter Has Cometh...

Winter has cometh, and has grasped us in it's icy grips.  Let the count down until the spring rains (March?) begin...

I haven't spoken much about our new digs on here, but Molly and I purchased our first home last July.  We are happily enjoying our little corner of suburbia.  The winter rains turned into flurries this evening and the neighborhood trees look very immaculate in the first real snow of the year.  From here on out it will be gray, dirty and depressing in SE Michigan for the next 4-5 months.

Can't wait for those spring rains!

Hellbender Hanky Panky!

For the first time in the world, hellbenders have been bred in captivity!

The St. Louis Zoo recently announced they have successfully bred hellbenders.  Hellbenders, Cryptobranchus allegheniensis, are large aquatic salamanders that live their whole lives underwater.  They don't have gills or lungs to breath, but instead rely on oxygen exchange from their wrinkly skin.  The live in cold, clean streams in the Appalachians and the Ozarks, and their numbers have plummeted throughout their range due to pressures from pollution, disease and collection.  In fact, those are probably just a few of the problems these majestic beasts face.  Hellbenders are state endangered throughout most of their range, and the Ozark Hellbender was recently named to the federal endangered species list in October of this year.  There have been ongoing efforts across the midwest for the past 5 or 10 years to breed them in captivity, and the St. Louis Zoo has been leading the charge. 

I have been extremely fortunate to observe the eastern subspecies in the wild a few times and contribute with research efforts.  They are truly amazing animals, and I hope we can work to find ways to reverse their decline.  Establishing captive breeding populations is definitely one step in the right direction.  There needs to be huge leaps in conservation of the streams and rivers they call home, where pollution, siltation, sedimentation and damns have severely damaged populations.

  If you happen upon a hellbender, please report it to your state DNR.  They are completely harmless and pose no threat to human or pet.  Please return them where they were found and wish them well on their fight for survival.

BH