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FLORIDA
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2009
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Click on any
photo to see a larger version
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Made several trips to
Florida
this year to visit family and friends.
In between, managed to find a few herps in local parks, as well as our
usual outings to the Big Cypress and Everglades.
The neighborhood
where I grew up is now home to iguanas and other exotic lizards.
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Green Iguana
Iguana iguana
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Brown Basilisk
Basiliscus vittaus
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Black Spinytail Iguana
Ctenosaura similis
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African
Redhead Agama
female (l) and male (r)
Agama agama
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Here’s an opposite
example, a species that seems exotic because it had become so rare, but is
actually a native. Once common
throughout south Florida, crocodiles were
nearly extirpated, except for a tiny population in a corner of the Everglades. Now
they’re making a comeback, thanks to years of education and
conservation.
When
I was a child, I never saw a wild crocodile, but now friends have a resident
croc in the canal behind their house.
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Photos courtesy of Rodney King
American Crocodile
Crocodylus acutus
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Not the best timing for
herps, so we spent a lot of time admiring birds.
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Anhinga
male (l) and female
(r)
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Egret
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Little Blue Heron
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Tricolor Heron (front) and Green Heron (back)
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Anhinga
(male)
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Cormorants,
Anhinga, Egret
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Black
Vultures
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Cormorant
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Limpkin
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Sandhill
Cranes
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Ibis
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Mixed
flock of ibises, wood storks, and roseate spoonbill
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Still, we did manage to see some herps out in
the Glades and Big Cypress.
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American
Alligator
Alligator mississippiensis
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Florida Redbelly Turtle
Pseudemys nelsoni
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Florida Softshell Turtle
Apelone ferox
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Peninsula
Cooters
Pseudemys peninsularis
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This cooter was crossing the Tamiami Trail
before Ron and I rescued it from traffic.
Flipped this Yellow Ratsnake from under a
piece of cardboard.
Of course, after sunset we did some
roadcruising.
This Garter Snake was lucky not to end up
like its roadkill meal.
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Eastern
Garter Snake
Thamnophis
sirtalis
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A young Miami-phase Corn Snake. The local variety usually has more of a
grey ground color, but this one had a pretty shade of light brown.
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Corn
Snake
Pantherophis guttata
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Thirty years ago I used to find Striped Swamp
Snakes (now called Striped Crayfish Snakes) on the road frequently, and in
large numbers; now it’s a nice
surprise when one shows up.
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Striped
Crayfish Snake
Regina alleni
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On the other hand . . . up until this night
in 2009, there was a south Florida
snake I had never seen. Ron and I were
cruising and saw a flash of red on the road.
It didn’t register at first, but then we realized that at long last,
and quite unexpectedly, we had finally found our first Coral Snake.
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Eastern
Coral Snake
Micrurus
fulvius
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