Carolina Herping...

I live in Spartanburg, South Carolina and was wondering if anyone has any herping tips to share.

My step-father owns 5.5 acres of land here. Most of this land is wooded. All kinds of trees, and plenty old rotted stumps and logs. On the backside of the property is a steep and rocky decline leading toward a small stream below. The climb down is difficult, but with plenty of footholds in the rock. There is also a very old abandoned wood shed on the property. This shed has three distinct room, each filled floor to ceiling with scraps of old wood. (This abandoned shed has not been entered in at least 20 years.)

My step-father's home is located in a small clearing of land. Each year his pet cat stalks and kills several small snakes in the basement. (The last one was two weeks ago -- a small 13" hatchling Black Rat Snake.) He also sees several other snakes in and around his long forest-lined driveway.

And so my question...

Where or how is a good place to start searching for the creatures? And would anyone local like to tag along sometime?

Thanks,
Chris Bianco
(864) 706-7399
[email protected]

Any nice sunny day in the spring will give you an opportunity to find a snake or two about. It's possible you may even have a small hibernaculum on that property where some snakes have over-wintered. NOW is the time to start looking around. Just watch out for copperheads, though. It sounds like there is enough variety in the microenvironment there that you may find just about anything.

Good luck!

i live in columbia but hunt spartanburg a few times out of the year. mostly, i stick to orangeburg, bowman, cameron, bamburg...charleston county areas and whathaveyou. in spartanburg-anything goes on the right day. look for pieces of debris-tin is usually the best-that are shaded throughout parts of the day and sunny in the morning. WATCH OUT FOR THE COPPERHEADS! they are everywhere around you. keep your hands off of the ground and you will be fine. also, take some of the wood out of the old barn and set it out at the bases of shrubs near honeysuckle, briar patches, or blackberry bushes and the sky is the limit to what may be under it. hope this help-let me know if you catch anything, if stuff trns up i just may stop by! later on
Trey

Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I really appreciate the help! =)

I just got back from vacation this weekend (Tybee Island, GA) and can't wait to start searching the area.

Oh! And I saw the photos you posted (skycock) of the Hognose snakes. Man! I really want to find one of those little beauties! Guess I'd better research their haunts, huh? =)

Thanks again...

Chris Bianco
(864) 706-7399
[email protected]

Well...so far we've found:

Black Rat Snakes
Ringneck Snakes
Rough Green Tree Snakes
(and miscellaneous lizards)

My step-father saw a "black snake" that took off really fast, so I'm thinking it could be a Racer. Who knows? And I still haven't searched the back area of the woods that leads down to the rocky cliff and stream below. And that old broken-down shed in the woods has a tin roof with small patches of grass growing on top -- the perfect place for a reptile to sun itself in the morning.

I admit that I've only been looking (herping) once, and that was a few months ago in the middle of the afternoon. I found nothing. Everything we've seen has been accidentally found. Oh, well.

I'll keep on searching. One day I'll be a real legitimate FIELD HERPER!

Good Things,
Chris Bianco
(864) 706-7399
[email protected]