1 Topic by OkieHerper

  • OkieHerper
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Topic: Beginning of my Caddo season

Well Melissa and I headed to Mena yesterday. No activity in my mines yet, but we had great luck in the area. We searched the area for Caddos briefly before heading on to try to find other stuff. We decided to cover as much area as we could before dark (which wansn't long). So in our mad attempt to race the sunset, we found:

E. coachwhip - 1
S. copperhead - 1 (this guy surprised me at the entrance to my mine shaft)
Louisiana milk snake - 1
Many-ribbed salamander - 2
W. Slimy salamander - 1
Rich mountain salamander - 1
Caddo mountain salamander - 10
Fourche mountain salamander - 0 (we only had a few minutes to look and my hotspot was pretty dry).
S. redback salamander - 5 (one was a leadback)
Ouachita dusky - 1 (quit looking after finding it, felt like we needed it for the list)
N. fence lizard - several on the roads

Other interesting finds:

Large black bear - 1
Juvenile bobcat - 1

I will try to post some pics in the next couple of days.

Josh Engelbert
Copan, OK

2 Reply by Mulebrother

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Re: Beginning of my Caddo season

Josh-
I hear you on the bear siting...
we were roadcruising down there last summer, out flippin some rocks beside the road, found a milk snake...got back in the truck, drove about 20 ft and up in the headlights was a huge black bear.  He just watched us until i got my camera up, then he took off and vanished into the woods...but you dang sure better watch your back down there at mena!

Government is not the solution Government is the PROBLEM...Ronald Reagan

3 Reply by OkieHerper

  • OkieHerper
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Re: Beginning of my Caddo season

but you dang sure better watch your back down there at mena!


My first trip to my site I heard something outside of the mine. When the other grad student got back, he told me that there was a big pile of scat just a few meters from the mine. So basically I had a bear nosing around my mine shaft WHILE I WAS INSIDE!!!

Either way, black bears don't worry me too much. We ran into a few when I worked in West Virginia. They seem to either be really chicken or maybe a little curious, but rarely will they mess with you.

Josh Engelbert
Copan, OK

4 Reply by OkieHerper

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Re: Beginning of my Caddo season

Here are a few pics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/okieherper/IMG_2591.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/okieherper/IMG_2604.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/okieherper/IMG_2616.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/okieherper/DSC04416.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/okieherper/DSC04436.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/okieherper/DSC04424.jpg

Josh Engelbert
Copan, OK

5 Reply by ksuglennj

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Re: Beginning of my Caddo season

Nice Coachwhip. I do not know what it is about that black and red that I like,  but I can never get enough pictures of that color pattern.

I just hope I do not find a pile of bear scat around Mena that has red hair in it.  smile

6 Reply by Van

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Re: Beginning of my Caddo season

I just hope I do not find a pile of bear scat around Mena that has red hair in it.

Are you kidding?  All the formalin he'd be carrying would probably kill the bear before it could scat him out!!


LOL j/k Josh

Van's Website

7 Reply by OkieHerper

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Re: Beginning of my Caddo season

Are you kidding? All the formalin he'd be carrying would probably kill the bear before it could scat him out!!


Even though all of the formalin I carry has been absorbed or inhaled, your probably right. Regardless of the amount of nasty chemicals that have made their way into my body, I hope this scenario never gets tested.

Josh Engelbert
Copan, OK

8 Reply by TreeHugger

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Re: Beginning of my Caddo season

Josh caught the milk snake and brought it to me to hold so he could go look for a Fourche Mtn. Sallie. I took a couple of pics before the camera battery ran out of juice.  Here is the one that WASN'T blurry...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/okieherper/IMG_2637.jpg

Compare the brightness of the two pics (Josh and mine). After I took to pics I noticed a 'tick' on its head and tried to pick it off. When I did I realized that it was beginning to shed so I helped it out. Josh got the after pics and I got before...

It's either true, or it's not... --Josh Engelbert
It's called pacing yourself... --Jacob Sawyer
To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it, requires brains. --Mary Pettibone Poole

Melissa Patrick
M.S. Student; ASU

9 Reply by Ryan

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Re: Beginning of my Caddo season

Nice pictures! Especially that 2nd copperhead one! BEAUTIFUL!!!

Does anyone else think that coach-whips look eternally ticked off?

-Ryan

Mark 10:27

"Sympathy is no substitute for action." -  David Livingstone