Island Living - Bimini, Bahamas Part I

Bimini Part I, Bimini Part II, Bimini Part III.

You might remember from about this same time last year that I entered the world of underwater photography? I haven't had much of a chance to dive and practice my new hobby since our trip last February. With winter fully upon us, Molly and I decided it would be a nice time to escape the ice and snow. Sounds like a great time for another dive trip!

We decided to stay a little more low key than Bora Bora. We wanted someplace close and easy to travel to quickly. I wanted good diving, (and maybe a snake or two) and Molly wanted warm weather, and a beach. Armed with our wish list, we looked at the Caymans, Utila and the Bahamas. Utila and the whale sharks were our first choice, but we decided it was a little more travel than we were looking for. We decided to try the Bahamas. I was fueled by some amazing images of Great Hammerhead sharks coming out of there, and Dick Bartlett and Jake Scott had some interesting stories of foreign herps.

Bimini was easily reached. We flew from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale, and then picked up a 25 min plane ride for the 50 mile trip due east. There is even a highspeed ferry (cruise ship?) that makes the trip from Florida to Bimini in about 1.5 hours. We had an early flight, and were to land on the island a little after noon. There were some rain delays, but we still got in early enough that our day was not wasted.

I may not be up on the most recent nomenclature for the fish or the herps. I used Reef Fish Identification to Florida, Caribbean and the Bahamas for the aquatic stuff. For the herps I used www.caribherp.org and Island Lists of the West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles from 2012.

Greeting us upon our arrival were the resident bull sharks that hang out around the docks of the Marina. 

Seems like we were at the right place! The next day got off to an early start as there were a couple dives planned for the morning. It was going to be one of my only dive days where sharks were not the focus, as well as I my first time shooting with the camera in a while. I decided to try my hand at macro and focus on the small(er) critters.

I'm still pretty new to trying to ID many of these fish. Corrections welcome!

Squirrelfish Holocentrus adscensionis

Yellowhead Jawfish Opistognathus aurifrons

Blue Chromis Chromis cyanea

Whitespotted Filefish Cantherhines macrocerus

Spotted Moray Eel Gymnothorax moringa

The resort we stayed at had plenty of trees and some of Bimin's herps were easily found on the grounds.

Bahaman Brown Anole Anolis sagrei ordinatus

Bimini Ameiva Ameiva auberi richmondi

Bimini Curly-tailed Lizard Leiocephalus carinatus coryi

Bimini Green Anole Anolis smaragdinus lernerii

Bimini Bark Anole Anolis distichus bimiensis

I also explored the streets around North Bimini a bit, flipping rocks and debris when possible and trying to not be too intrusive of people and their homes. Places that looked inhabitable definitely had inhabitants... More of the species above were seen, as well as a Sphaerodactylus sp. that escaped without definitive ID. I was able to find my fist snake though, the biggest blind snake I have ever seen, flipped under a small board.

Typhlops bimiensis

After, Molly and I enjoyed a decent Valentine's Day sunset facing Florida.

We planned to explore North Bimini a bit the next morning, and then rent bikes to explore South Bimini in the afternoon. North Bimini is where most of the population lives and works. We wandered the local streets and made sure to check out a "museum", The Dolphin House. A native Bahamian has been working on this house for many years now, building it out of reclaimed materials. He has a ton of patience and creativity.

Says he found these washed up on the beach...

I believe this is a loggerhead turtle shell.

I believe this a green sea turtle shell,

He talked about protecting the bimini boa, and even mentioned he had a "baby". It was actually the smaller, dwarf boa species.

We don't miss cold Detroit at all...

That afternoon we rented craptastic bikes and took the ferry over to South Bimini. Plenty of anoles were visible on the trees, and we even got a glimpse of another snake.

Bimini Green Anole Anolis smaragdinus lerneri 

Bahaman Brown Anole Anolis sagrei ordinatus

I had now seen 3 of the 4 anole species. Much of my time was now being spent starting at small branches for the elusive twig anole, and searching low for the boas. It wasn't a boa, but seeing this basking got my blood pumping!

Bimini Racer Alsophis vudii picticeps

Attempts at capture in the midafternoon sun were widely unsuccessful. Further exploration on bikes turned up one more DOR racer.

More to come soon, I promise!

Bimini Part I, Bimini Part II, Bimini Part III.

Dusting off the Cobwebs

Wow.

I knew it had been a long time since I last posted, but I did not realize it had been since March! This year my field season kicked off quickly and I haven't been this active in recent memory. Between hitting the trails, rivers and wetlands harder than ever, my work environment evolving for the good and a new found love in running, my time dissappeared fast. The blog unfortunately took a back seat. It was real hard to justify spending time inside when there were so many things to do outside. I did miss the opportunity to share my experiences and interact with my (very) small viewership.

The weather has taken a turn for the worst here in the midwest though. Days are short and frost is coming. I have been lucky enough to travel a bit this year since March, and while none of my destinations were as exotic as Bora Bora, I have some really cool animals and trips to share. So if you haven't given up on me, stick around. Some new stuff is finally on the way, as well as some new experiences with some of the old Michigan favorites.

See you soon!

Buckeyeherper

Michigan Results 2012!

Spring has arrived and it is past due that I finish up my Michigan 2012 record keeping tasks. All of my records have been entered and tallied for a few months, but I had to update and fix some bugs in the database (Thanks Carl!). I am three to fourth months ahead my curve compared to last years results. With spring approaching, and new entries starting to come in, here is how 2011 turned out for me.

Let us see how I did with my goals for 2012:

1. Wood turtles from new river systems.

I made a much stronger effort to get to some new river systems in 2012. Having my own kayak definitely helped, but I still got off to a very slow start and didn't paddle until August. I spent many hours on the water from then on though and found woods in three new rivers. Check! I also struck out numerous times this year, for more than years past. I explored the edge of their range and distributional gaps in records more than previously and view this as a part of doing business.

2. Rifle River wood turtle.

Never made it out to the Rifle this year. I planned on it a few times, but skipped it for weather. It will be on the list again this year. If anyone does hear or have recent confirmed Rifle River Michigan wood turtle sightings, I would love to hear about them.

3. Fox snakes from new counties, specifically Macomb.

Epic fail. I worked hard at finding a Macomb Co fox snake. I hiked through patches of the remaining habitat on wonderful days in April, May, June, July and August and struck out. I have found another area close by I want to check out this year and hopefully this luck will turn.

4. SE Michigan Spotted turtle

Epic success! I found Clemmys in 2 new SE Michigan counties last year. It was a banner year for them. I never saw great numbers, but was able to find one or two at a bunch of new locations for myself. This will continue to be a huge area of focus for 2013.

5. MI spotted salamander.

Embarrassingly, I failed yet again. Hoping to turn this around in 2013...

6. MI newt.

Still no newts.

7. Lay more tin. More tin.

While not nearly enough, I did put some more boards out in a possible massassauga field close to home.

8. MI Box turtle.

A lone DOR boxie along a SW section of highway sadly cleared this goal for me. Now to turn up a live one.

9. Herp the UP (a western fox, wood turtle, or mink frog would make this even more sweet.)

I got as far north as Mackinac Island, which I guess technically falls into Mackinac County, part of the UP. For my purposes, I am not counting this though.

10. Record a respectable 150+ records for 2012.

and the final goal... I logged 193 records in 2012, coming oh so close to breaking the 200 record mark! This was huge for me. I discuss total numbers a few years back in this post about the 2010 field season, and set my 2011 goal at 200. I herped real hard that year and only logged 145, so I had lowered my standards to a reachable 150. Looks like that 200 mark is reachable after all.

Which brings us to 2013... I am going to try and limit a few goals in an effort to not spread myself thin. I am also hoping to spend some time out of state during prime time - May and June. Taking this into account my goals are (in no particular order):

1. Rifle River Woody

2. Macomb County foxy

3. Michigan spotted salamander

4. New wood turtle rivers

5. Log 175 herps for 2012

So many others missing the list, but I am trying to focus here. Honorable mentions include green snakes, hoggies, box turtles, the UP, Belle Isle  etc. So much to do, so little time. 

A quick look at my Michigan 2012 map.

And my total Michigan map - 644 records so far. Still lots of ground to cover out there. 

What are your goals for 2013?

Happy Herping!

BH

Happy 30th Birthday Molly!

Bora Bora IV: Macro

Herps on Bora Bora were few and far between. There were geckos on most of the buildings at night, of which I tried to ignore. One day we came in the room to find this bear eating gecko.

Other than these, I quickly noticed small skinks around the beach and on the palm trees. I believe these are Snake-Eyed Skinks Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus. I photographed a bunch of them and didn't notice any other different appearing animals.

I asked about sea turtles but mostly was told we would be very lucky to see any. I guess the polynesians find green sea turtle meat to be very delicious. Despite it being illegal, they are still commonly eaten when found. There is a small turtle rehab and head starting facility on the island, but they are a relatively young facility and I didn't visit, so I don't know how well it is doing. I was told I might have a chance to see a hawksbill, but my divemaster had only seen three or four in the last three months.

I only shot with my macro setup on two occasions sadly. When you have chances at manta, it can be hard to convince yourself to put the macro lens on your rig. I snorkeled around the coral gardens by the resort briefly with my macro lens on one of the first few days.

Textile Cone Snail Conus textile

Neon Damsel Pomacentrus coelestis

Black-axil Chromis Chromis atripectoralis

There were a few lionfish that were hiding in the structure and coral during the day. One night I saw a few of them swimming around after dark, but I never had a chance to photograph them when they were not hiding.

Clearfin Lionfish Pterois radiata

This crab was hanging out on one of the wooden supports holding up the walkway to the bungalows.

Near the end of the trip, we booked one of the afternoon "fun dives", which are basically for beginners or people getting certified. I knew we would dive the site with the eagle rays and sand flats, but figured with the group of beginners I could split off and stay beneath the boat and explore the reef. As it turns out, my buddy Rob and I were the only people on the books to dive. We ended up with a private dive as we explored the reef for macro life. It turned out to be one of my favorite dives of the trip!

I finally took the opportunity to photograph some of the christmas tree worms I had been seeing all trip.

I also enjoyed focusing on the clownfish that were swimming in and out of the anemones.

Other fish in the anemones included these Three-spot Dascyllus Dascyllus trimaculatus.

This Peacock Razorfish Iniistius pavo was able to react to my strobes and was often photographed in a blur of movement or in a different orientation. Only once or twice did it stay still.

Julian, our divemaster, turned up a couple small crustaceans to pose for the camera.

Snubnose Grouper Epinephelus macrospilos were commonly perched along the reef.

Humbug Dascyllus Dascyllus aruanus

We finished our macro dive after 70 minutes of bottom time with a few nice finds. This enormous moray eel was out of his hole and enjoying being cleaned by a Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse Labroides dimidiatus.

We had seen one of these small pipefish earlier in the trip, but I was unable to do them justice with the wide-angle lens. We found three of these on a small grouping of coral.

Corythoichthys conspicillatus

Finally, right under our boat in about 15 feet of water, Julian turned up this small stonefish. It was the only one we saw on the trip and I was ecstatic to be able to see it.

Reef Stonefish Synanceia verrucosa

All in all we had a wonderful time diving and enjoying what Bora Bora had to offer. There was one other memorable encounter on our second to last day that I have to finish with. Just after a manta decided to drift by us, I looked ahead along the coral and saw this cruising along top the reef.

Hawksbill sea turtle Eretmochelys imbricata

I didn't quite get the shots I wanted, my strobes were positioned very far out for large mantas, but I really enjoyed swimming along this turtle.


Happy Herping ;)


BH

If you want to read the rest: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.