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2009 Fall Field Trip

Reports

• Official Report (PDF Format), by Glenn Manning and Kory Roberts
• Unofficial Report, by Brad Birchfield

Finds of Interest

• Wood Frog (Rana sylvatica) = Rare amphibian with S3 ranking.

Gallery

Unofficial Report, by Brad Birchfield

Hard to believe another AHS trip has come and gone. Not lookin forward to the colder weather and less herping, but all things come to an end. That’s what I was thinkin as I was trying to console my crying son Sunday night after he wanted to go herping some more. I have to say, he’s a chip off the ‘ol block.

Reagan and I arrived mid afternoon on Friday to a small but excited group. Devin, Kory, the Chapmans, Thomas (Bushmaster) we’re all taking in our surroundings for the weekend. Artist point is a hokey gift shop that’s been there since time began…but about 10 years ago, they built a loft apartment/lodge thing on top of it. Its about 3000 square feet, with an incredible view of the boston mountains. Other than the lack of water pressure, and I do mean LACK OF, the lodging was more than comfortable this time. And, although it cost a bit more, it was still a bargain for a 2 night stay in an air conditioned, comfy bed. It was nice being rested for a change.

Soon after arriving, the ‘men’ (including Reagan and Morgan Chapman) piled into the vehicles for some herping. The first stop was a roadside pull off place that I’ve suspected as being a dump for years. It was somewhat disappointed although Glen flipped a large ringneck and we saw a couple of the throw away lizards. Next was a LONG drive out to the west that ended at Fall Creek where I stopped and snagged a black racer basking on the dirt road. Since we were right near a creek, some quick checking revealed a Northern water snake and an unidentified water snake (probably a plainbelly). We were off and running. The next stop is a tin site out in the sticks that Eric East and I had visited the weekend before. The same tin pile revealed the same LARGE timber we’d found the previous Sunday. We took some pics and called ahead to meet up with Van and Glenn. Upon arriving back near Devils Den state park, we met up with the Manning/Van dyke combo. After some shuffling, we all piled into the 4wd vehicles for a drive back into the forrest to herp some abandoned quarries. The road was exciting to say the least. I sustained a blow to my head that I’m still not sure I’ve recovered from. Not much was found, but what we did find was quality. Thomas flipped a small milk snake, while Glenn taunted me with a large tarantula. The find of the day though, was a large wood frog that Kory and I spooked while exiting the quarry. Usually found during the breeding season (jan-feb) this was a welcome find that made the long hike worthwhile. Manning also managed to turn up a huge scolopendra (desert centipede from hell) The next spot didn’t yield anything exciting except watching Kory run from a nest of yellow jackets he disturbed. He only got stung once, on the thumb, but the pain and swelling were excruiating according to the webmaster. I’ll say this…it was ALMOST bad enough to make Kory cuss, if that tells you anything.

Back at the cabin- other folks had arrived. Josh & Melissa were in from NE Oklahoma (and Melissa’s parents), another ‘new guy’ named Josh (we decided on “new josh”- jthmrules08 on the forum), We all sat down to a fine meal of ham/beans and cornbread that couldn’t be beat. Since we had no campfire to sit around, we gathered in the living room and BS’d until one by one we headed off to bed. Sometime in there Ben and wife Kelly arrived from Jonesboro. Kory had taken a double dose of benadryl for his sting and was out by 9pm. I’m not sure when all the conversation ended, but I drug my semi-concious son to bed around 11 for a good nights sleep.

Saturday arrived all too soon, but with Torry flippin out some ‘omlet eggs’, french toast and sausage links, it was good to get up and about. Since the group was not too big, we decided to all hit the same spot- some southwest facing slopes that Kory and I had been eyeing on the google maps. Well, no matter how bad/steep/rugged it looks on the satellite imagery, you can bet its 10 times worse on the ground. This time proved no different. As we met a few more stragglers, namely Eric and Aaron East, we loaded up and headed to the national forrest. Eric rode with me and mid sentence, about a half mile from the cabin, he went crazy, screaming, flailing his arms. He then asked if I had fire ants in my truck, to which I replied “uh no”. Apparently, a nice big bumble bee had made its overnight home in his seat and when he leaned back on it, it made its presence known. OUCH. I hate bees.

After about 45 minutes of dirt roads, we arrived at our site. I gave general directions, and a game plan and we busted up into about 3 groups. My group headed out to the very western end of the slope. We flipped everything we could find and checked every crack and crevice…but saw nothing more than ground skinks. It was very disheartening, but alas, that is herping. I have to give a shout out to my boy Reagan though…that little guy is just barley 4 and he hung right with us, aside from a few tumbles and rides on my shoulders. I will give him this, he is tenacious. Special thanks to Thomas for watchin out for him while I tried to beat a path through briars and for picking him up after a couple of spills. Finally after about 3 hours, we were back at the truck. A quick lunch and we decided to hit another slope in the same area. As soon as we’d turned our vehicles and were getting out, a 4 wheeler came driving down the hill behind us. We had passed a pretty good sized camp back on the road in…and I assumed some jerk was coming to tell us to leave…but I was wrong. The guy turned out to be real nice and at least had some basic snake knowledge. Turns out he was here from OKC, but he just wondered what we were up do. After he left, we continued flipping every rock in sight, again to no avail, less a couple slimy sallies and a box turtle. One thing to note, Ben, Reagan and myself were up on top and I flipped a good looking rock with my tater rake. Underneath was this white plastic lookin thing. It really looked foreign…so I told been to check it out. Just as we were about to poke it, about 3 yellowjackets appeared from nowhere. It was a nest! Needless to say, I carefully replaced the rock and we moved on. Quickly. When we finally caught up with Kory, Glen, and Josh, they were shooting pics of a large milksnake flipped by Josh. About that same time, 4-wheeler guy came driving back up looking for his glasses that he’d lost. We did some show and tell with the snake and he moved on, so by this point, we were all feeling pretty worn. A stop at a creek bordering the road on the way back to the cabin to look for queen snakes ended a long hard day of herping. We had another outstanding meal of orange chicken and desert of apple crisp with ice cream and then sat and listened to the razorbacks get beat by georgia. That was enough for me, we were in bed by 10 and fast asleep.

Sunday, we had pretty much a communal breakfast and most folks decided to head back, while the final four (and a half if you count reagan) decided for one more try at Devil’s Den.(Glenn Manning, Me, Kory and Devin). After some somber goodbyes, we headed to the park. We attempted to contact the new naturalist at the park, Adam, who almost got to join us had work not interferred. On the various trails of the park, we found a few ringnecks, lizards and other yawnworthy finds. We did see a nice slope where a powerline went up a hill, right down in the park, so we decided to hit it. A short time later, Kory and I heard the familiar sound of a buzztail. Crouching down, we saw a nice yellowish timber about 3ft long coiled up under the lip of a huge rock with a crevice behind it. It retreated too quickly for us to really see it, but it was still super cool. Too funny too, this spot is about 150ft from campsites…amazing animals, arent they? Finally, the heat and tiredness from the day before had us on the ropes, so we parted ways. Glenn and I headed back up the hill out of the park. At the top of the hill, we passed a car coming towards us in the opposite lane. A friendly wave and we topped a hill that has a long straight stretch ahead. Well, something caught my eye. At that distance, my thought process went like this : SNAKE! No…too big…probably an oil spot….or a stain from some dead animal…no way a snake would be that big in the middle of the day crossing the road anyway. So as we are nearing, Glenn is buried in his cell phone texting…about that time, I notice it’s a big, beautiful timber rattler. I wont write what I said next, but most of you can probably guess. So an abrupt pull off the road and Glenn and I were steppin and fetchin. We got it off the road with my trusty pillstroms and noticed it was absolutely fine (we wondered if the car we met had hit it). We finally decided the car had either straddled it or swerved purposely to miss it. Either way, it worked out great for all involved. As we were taking pics, another car went buy, only to slam on its breaks and back up. It was a family and they were like “Oh my gosh, is that a real rattlesnake? “ - so again, we used it as a vehicle to spread the herping gospel, and Kory even took some good pics for them with their cameras. We decided that with the timber, it simply wouldn’t get any better and called it a weekend.

So, despite relatively few finds, it was definitely worth getting out. Always good to see old and new faces. Ya’ll keep the spring in mind, some of you, and you know who you are, have been absent for WAYYYY too long. Some of these ‘newbies’ may think we’re halfway normal if we don’t get this turned around. Anyway, I’ll see you in the spring. :-)