Winter Herping

[RMorrow]

I know, I know, everybody knows that herps are not out during the winter, especially in areas with a more temperate climate. But I have found wild herps here in the midwest in every single month of the year. A number of amphibians throughout the season, a prairie king and garter in early February and even turtles in January and December. As long as there is some open water and the sun is shining you can find painteds, red-ears and snappers basking. This girl below was found on an 11 degree day in January. If you look close, you can see the ice on the pond in the background. Herping is not as fast and furious in the cold, but it is just as exciting when you see something like this.

 

[snakeguy101]

I have found things in unlikely conditions too such as an eastern diamondback rattler in 40º rain and a black rat snake in the snow. Salamanders are usually what I go for in cooler weather though.

 

[David Tobler]

Very cool...

I think most people would be surprized on how many herps they'd see in the field if they focused on the conditions certain individual species need to be active. Things I kinda look at more often than anything would be when did it rain last, or will it be raining? I also pay attention to overnight low temps, daytime highs, warming trends, and moon phases. These factors will often determine what type of herping I'll be doing for whatever day of the week in any given month. I find daytime highs and overnight lows will often give me an idea of what time in the day I should be looking.

 

[snakeguy101]

Very cool...

I think most people would be surprized on how many herps they'd see in the field if they focused on the conditions certain individual species need to be active. Things I kinda look at more often than anything would be when did it rain last, or will it be raining? I also pay attention to overnight low temps, daytime highs, warming trends, and moon phases. These factors will often determine what type of herping I'll be doing for whatever day of the week in any given month. I find daytime highs and overnight lows will often give me an idea of what time in the day I should be looking.

I do the same and carry a temp gun with me to check the temperature of the surface of the roads while road cruising. Usually I start out on dirt roads running north/south early in the evening because those tend to be the coolest and will have the last activity of the diurnal species. After the temperature has dropped some I move onto east/west roads since they are exposed to the sun more and will stay at the optimum temperature for a while longer and then I move to paved roads since those are the warmest as the temps drop even further during the night. There are some species that I only find during rain (such as coral snakes) and some only when it is below 70º (such as eastern indigo snakes). Winter is also a good time to check rattlesnake dens if you know of any. On this side of the states they are rare but well worth the hunt. I found several dozen timbers a few years ago hanging out in a shallow cave in the middle of January that way.

 

[snakebite22]

I went herp hunting in late feb early march about 11 years ago. Was a mild winter and was wondering what all I could find. Had been hunting for several hours and didn't find nothing was just about to give up and decided to check one more spot and I found a timber rattlesnake. I was excited and just had to catch it. Well in the process of trying to catch this 2 ft rattlesnake without my hook or tongs i started hearing more rattling and decided I would look around. Turns out I happened across a den I counted 8 timber rattlesnakes in a 10ft x 10ft area. Seeing as they are an endangered snake in Texas or were 10 yrs ago I decided to leave them be. Ever since then I have taken trips to southwest texas every year in the early spring to do some collecting or blacktail rattlesnakes and mottled rock rattlesnakes plus whatever else I can come across. I love herp hunting in late winter early spring

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Where I live late winter/early spring is the time to go out looking for salamanders. And we have a lot of them up here in PA. In the past I've also found garter snakes in the snow and painted turtles sunning themselves on ice flows in the rivers.

 

[RMorrow]

That is awesome. I have avid herp friends who are not necessarily field people who have always questioned seeing snakes and turtles in the snow and ice. That was why I was so excited to have a camera with me when I found this girl trolling around the pond bank. In all honesty, I was not herping on the day I found her, (it was 11 degrees out that day!!) I was duck hunting and walking with my dog when I saw her. I have seen them literally hundreds of times out there while we were hunting, but never close enough to get a good picture showing the ice and cold as well.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

^ That reminds, I was duck hunting around this time a few years ago when I almost stepped on a massive snapping turtle sunning it's self in some shallow water with just it's shell peaking out. I thought it was a rock until it moved, lol.

 

[snakeguy101]

^ That reminds, I was duck hunting around this time a few years ago when I almost stepped on a massive snapping turtle sunning it's self in some shallow water with just it's shelling peaking out. I thought it was a rock until it moved, lol.

Haha, that is a good way to catch them.