Herping West Texas
 

Hello all. I was just wondering how many you have been herping in West in the past few years. I have been down a few times and I am moving to San Angelo this spring. Anybody intrested in future herping trips or just want to blab about previous experiences, please reply. Thanks

Contact Randy Ellis. He knows the area very well. www.reptilelocators.com

I also know the area by the back of my hand, I am trying to get this going a little bit. There is alot of people that have only been once or twice and they probably have some good stories. I want to here stories of what they caught and where they found what. I had a experience down there last fall when we decided to eat in Mexico, at the Presido line and almost got arrested by border patrol for crossing with a baby diamondback in the car. I took us three hours to get back into the U.S.. After crossing back into the states, we drove east on river road and collected around 40 snakes. I had been out west for a few days and had bad luck, so the snakes made the border trouble worth it. Snakes found included......3 Trans Pecos Rats, 2 Mexican Milks, 6 Grey-Bands(2 with no red and 4 very red), 2 Lyre Snakes( released later as they are protected), 4 Checkered Garters, 6 Gophers, 4 Desert Kings(all found within 1 mile of eachother), 2 Banded Rock Rattlers, 1 Mottled Rock Rattler, 3 Blacktails, 2 Mojaves, and 5 Diamondbacks. All in all, it was a great week out west. All lizards were caught durring the day. I had a ton of Banded Geckos and Crevice Spinys. A couple earless and fence lizards. :cool:

many of us
 

west Texas hunters/observers been down many MANY times. I have made that trip over 50 times in 30 years. Where do you stay at while down / I basically hunt only the west these past several years oppose to the east or mid east ( langtry, Sanderson , Del Rio/277, Juno road. I hunt 118 south of alpine, occasionally black gap and of course river road to the windmill turn around. Normally I'm down for 4 to 7 days hunting. With the laws in place and getting stricter, i don't cross unto the mexican side anymore in the west while down. They are proposing the big fence again around Lajitas and i don't know how far west.

I usually stay in Alpine. I run all directions out of there. I generally dont go farther east that Del Rio unless Im going down to Brownsville to catch gators. I am moving to San Angelo this spring, so I hope to be able to find some new areas and explore more. Id like to do more rock flipping for rare snakes and lizards. Should be fun. I want to get more west to find some different lizards out there. With all the people that go out there, Im surprized that not more people are wanting to tell there stories on here. I here that last fall a rancher found a 2 headed diamondback that was around 4 feet long. He was scared of it and killed the snake, but it was still cool to hear about. I also saw a picture of a diamondback that was almost 8 feet long. It was found near Amarillo. I got some friends comming down to herp in the spring, you should come. The more the better! No fighting over snakes though!! :uzi: I would :cool: like to take some people down to the Falcon State park. I found some Cateyed snakes down there and some indigos. The indigos made good pictures, but i had to release them. Also found a ton of Blue Spiny Lizards around there. You ever find anything around you? I have herped around Emporia a few times, but its so flat. Mostly found rat snakes. :cool:

Wild Horse cabins
 

in the Xmas mountains is where most of us west Texas hunters stay. I know of a albino atrox found in the east last year. Several strange pattern subocs have been found on river road. My luck on alterna is crummy for the past several years but i have found multiple rock rattlers on 118 and river road plus several trans pecos copperheads in the last 2 years. Of course normally 5 to 6 subocs per trip. I don't plan on bringing anything back this year. Just photos. My planned trips will be in June and Aug with the dark of the moon. I hunt north of me in the flint hills around Alma for milks and great plains rats. Also the collared lizards are abundant out here. There again I don't keep any of these but do it for the excitement and exercise. There is that other website that totally dedicates to the grey-band that has west Texas hunting involved. If you haven't, you might check that web site out.

I know some real good spots you might like. I have a timber rattler spot near KC, and I also have a Massasauga spot, that was my collard lizard spot, and still is, but i have found 4 massasaugas there in the past year. I also find speckled kings in the same area. I have a good area to find osage copperheads also, and that area has a different type of collard lizard, well its the same, but they have black bands across the backs. Very cool lizards. I have been finding alot of red-milks last year in the flint hills. I only found one central plains milk last year. I also found 3 legless lizards last fall, I have seen them before, but they all got away. I have found worm snakes at the copperhead spot and milks and plains rats. Ill have to show you my junk piles before i move out of state. I have one right by a creek and it produces snakes every time im out there. I found my second horned toad last fall in east kansas. Something you may like, we have the italian wall lizards all over topeka. pick a mulch bed around campus and start grabbing. these are awesome little lizards. We also have a subspecies of green lizards here. I have one now as a pet, its a awesome little guy. I here there is copperheads around perry lake, but i cant seem to find the right areas out there. If you want to do some photography of any of those critters, i can show some gaurantied areas out west. Its a bad day if i dont see at least 8 species of snakes. I started finding the brown snakes this past year alot also, and some lined snakes. Ringnecks are everywhere of course. :bolt01:

Feel free to Email Me about it anytime. I am in FAR west Texas, but I go east on occasion (not as much as i'd like) to field herp. Just let Me know. All i need is advance warning so i can schedule at work.
Have not been to the places you are speaking of, so a new adventure works for Me. I have not encountered any ssp of massasauga in this area, (el paso) or in a 300 mile circle. That would work for Me also. I need pics of one anyway.
I am supposed to be getting together with a friend in San Antonio for a spring get together and sorta pre-round up, round up.


Have you been out this way? Like the Kilbourne Hole, south NM area, or into eastern AZ? We mostly got atrox, molossus, scutulatis and viridis out here, and there is "supposed" to be massasauga out here, but you cant convince me of it. LOL

Rick

We are actually going to start in El Paso. My friend is flying down from WA., and its cheapest to land in El Paso. Where I live now, people have been extremely rude and act like I dont know what im talking about. There is this guy out here that thinks he knows all and he swore that I never saw a Massassauga here. Well, that guy is a idiot, because I sent him a picture of the pair I found and the 12 babies they produced the first year. Since then, the Male has died, but the Female is kicking and the babies all survived accept 2 of them. I just got lucky. I was at my collard lizard spot. it was about 90 degrees and high humidity. I was out at 9:00am. I found them when i was least expecting too, so you will sooner or later. The guy that owns the hotel in Sanderson, TX has a desert massassauga that he found around there, so they are there somewhere. I want to look around your area for lizards and snakes. I like the desert lizards also. I have a friend in Tucson that has found 2 green ratsnakes, so i would love a few of those.

Roy at out back
 

does in fact have a western Massasauga but I don't know if it was found in the Sanderson area proper. I know we have never EVER seen them farther west and south in the Big Bend region. In the book " The Snakes of Texas " it does not list the Western Massasauga as a species of the prime Trans Pecos region with a question mark of Presidio county. We have however found what we think is a few crosses of atrox and viridis on 118 within 30 to 20 miles south of Alpine.