Field Herping at Wichita Mountains

So, my friend Colt and I went camping at Wichita Mountains earlier this week and literally herped all day for the two days that we were there (Sadly with very little results). We saw tons of their beautiful Collared Lizards, a good number of Fence Lizards, the occasional Little Brown Skink, a Narrow-mouthed Toad, a few Red Eared Sliders, and two Three Toed Box Turtles. We also saw some really cool inverts! We saw four Oklahoma Brown Tarantulas, a lot of Bark Scorpions, three Giant Desert Centipedes, and tons of Giant Millipedes!
I was upset because gas cost me around $80 to make the trip there and back, and I was really hoping to find multiple snakes, but we couldn't seem to find any... In the past when I have been at Wichita Mnts I was able to come across Western Coachwhips, several Yellow Bellied Racers, the occasional Rat Snake intergrade, etc. On this trip we hadn't even seen a small species under a rock, such as a ring-necked snake, or a rough earth snake.

Finally, literally within the last hour that we were going to stay there and continue herping I came across a beautiful Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake that was curled up in the shade of a big rock (which he had a burrow under).

Here are some pics from the trip:


The Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake (he was close to 4ft long)







One of the Gian Desert Centipedes. (the biggest ones we saw on this trip were around 5'' long)


male Eastern Collared Lizard


Eastern Fence Lizard

Great Plains Narrow-mouthed Toad

Millipede


Oklahoma Brown Tarantula

Someone has some serious photo skillz!

sbender99 wrote:Someone has some serious photo skillz!

Thanks Scott!

I love, love, love the photos of the WDB and the narrow-mouthed toad especially but all are awesome pics. Thanks for sharing!!! I am so happy that you saw a toad. They are few and far between here so far this year. Maybe the drought's not helping.


Tandy

sbender99 wrote:Someone has some serious photo skillz!

DITTO

Nice pics man. Collard lizards are beautiful lizards. Always impressed when I see them.

Thanks everybody!
Tandy, I am glad that you like the shots so much! I spent over an hour photographing that Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake! lol
Zak, yes I totally agree! Every time that I see one of those brightly colored Collared Lizards I am totally amazed by their beauty!

I think if I was to keep a lizard it would be a pair of those. I love their color. You seem to have a lot of good luck when you go herp hunting.

Awesome pics Cameron.

Thanks Bryan!
Zak, I guess I do tend to find some cool stuff. I think most of it is due to how much time and energy I put into field herping. I mean, it took two days of hiking, flipping tons of heavy and rough rocks (I literally rubbed one of my fingers numb from flipping rocks, and then even two days later that finger felt all tingly), and baking in the sun, before I happened across that rattler. I was really starting to get depressed that we hadn't seen any snakes, and I even almost gave up at the beginning of the second day!
Now that it is summer for me, I try to go herping as much as I can! lol Most of the time I just go to local places near Shawnee.
I love field herping!!! (Oh, and I saw a beautiful DOR Speckled Kingsnake last night on a road in the middle of Shawnee )

Maybe we will have the same out come tomorrow.

WDB and NM Toad