Southern Chorus Frog, once abundant but now seemingly less so.
Well, it was not really spring but 22 February 2024 was a fairly decent northcentral Florida day. The high had been about 73F and the low was forecast about 10 degrees cooler. Not bad. But then I remembered that the herping spot I was thinking about was about 100 mile further north, so I subtracted 3 or 4 degrees, thought for a minute or two, and decided, what the heck. I was tired of sitting home, so I washed the car’s windshield, and headed northward beneath a sky filled overhead with skudding clouds, and looking ahead into a horizon of gray. Ten miles up the road it clouded up a bit more, sprinkled for a couple of miles and then as I drove on the rains came. In a flash the car had me amidst a literal downpour. It rained and rained some more. But no herps, not even the rain-loving amphibians seemed to be moving..

After a pass or two on the tried and true (and now failing) roadway I decided to head towards home. A couple of miles south I ran out of the downpour. Here the rain was barely falling, and whoops—frogsong—Southern Chorus Frogs, Pseudacris nigrita, from the roadside. The car, or I, had been well trained. No cars behind, onto the grassy roadside, stop, grab flashlight and camera, and I was heading for frogsong from the newly freshened roadside ditch.

What had been an uneventful night soon became a joyful one for the chorus frogs were not the only species calling. Before midnight I had added spring peepers, Pseudacris crucifer, and even a few unexpected warmer weather (=springtime) species-, green and squirrel treefrogs, Hyla cinerea & H. squirella, a few southern toads, Bufo (Anaxyrus) terrestris and oak toads, B (A) quercicus, among them. And although they were not chorusing, Southern Leopard Frogs, Rana utricularia, were out and very active.

Ahhhhh, Florida and spring in Midwinter. Always good to experience.

Young adult Barbour's Map Turtle
Back around 1960-something or the other, Patti and I used to take roadtrips much more frequently than we do today. As I think back, that was understandable because so much, including the various herps, was new to us. So we meandered from one end of the state to the other, and then westward to the 3rd end of the state, the Panhandle that reaches from Madison to Escambia counties. Somewhere along these craggy lines I began photographing again with the goal of depicting each and every amphibian and reptile that called Florida home. And and with that fixed firmly in mind, a beautiful dimorphic aquatic Panhandle turtle.caught my eye.

This was and is Barbour’s Map Turtle. It took only a few minutes research to learn that to do photographic justice to this persistently aquatic turtle would require pics being taken of 3 stages in its life, a hatchling, an adult male, diminutive though these may be, and a hulking adult female that, when fully grown is more than twice the size of the males. To apply a measurement to carapace sizes, hatchlings are about 1 ½ inches, adult males are about 4 ½ inches, and adult females are about 12 inches, impressively notable differences.

To shorten an unwieldy tale, hatchlings and males were easily photographed. It took only a couple of slow and enjoyable canoe rides, stopping here and there at submerged or protruding snags to take the “needed” pix. But the adult females were another several stories. Over the years Patti and I tried and failed. 4 decades rolled on by. 20 years ago Carl May and I tried. Again, failure. Now here we are in 2024 and I’m going to try again—this time with Jake..

And, because of unexpected flooding we almost failed again. But at the last stop Jake came through. He spotted a single female, way downriver, clambered down an 8 foot vertical drop, and took pix for both him and me-----and you. .Thanks, Jake.

Typical eastern (chain) kingsnake from the FL-GA state line.
Well, firstly, if you are inclined to listen to the geneticists, the Florida Kingsnake, Lampropeltis getula floridana has become a nonentity, a snake having no special or interesting qualities. And that same disregard for subspecies would apply to the phases we have long known as “brooksi” and “goini.”. So for our purposes, herewith we’ll disregard the genetic findings and mention the various getula kingsnakes in FL as subspecies, as Linnaeus meant them to be.

In one subspecies or another the Kingsnake complex ranges throughout Florida

From the FL Keys in Monroe County, to the St Mary’s River in Nassau County, Fl and then westward to the Escambia River in Escambia County—In other words throughout all of FL---you will be treking through “Kingsnake Country”. These big, beautiful, secretive snakes are, or at least once were, found from border to border to border (and far beyond) in the sunshiney state of FL.

the USA.From the FL Keys to GA and AL a Kingsnake of some color could be encountered.Not only are these Found in one or another color beautiful snakes

When adult the various subspecies of the Eastern Kingsnake, including the nominate form, are big, occasionally attaining or even exceeding by a few inches, 6 feet in length. The base color may vary from yellow or black in northern FL to brown or yellow in southern FL.In northern FL the yellow occurs primarily in 2 discrete areas—Apalachicola Natl Forest and coastal neFL. A darker narrow vertebral stripe may or may not be present. They are rare in the former area and have not been seen for many years in the latter region.

Most individuals seen from north of the Ocala, FL area and except for Apalachicola area have been of rather typical eastern (Eastern Chain Kingsnake) pattern. The keywords in that sentence are “rather typical.” The differences usually most visible are in the variable amount of white—the thickness of the white bands both dorsally and laterally.Kingsnakes from the Panhandle , except fo the Apalachicola area, are white chain-patterned black snakes.

Florida Kingsnake pattern and colors are usually lighter overall than other subspecies, but some have a truly bungled light pattern over the black, or vice versa. Look for these from Ocala southward on the peninsula to Miami..

South Florida or Brook’s phase: Most King Snake enthusiast have searched eagerly for this Kingsnake having greenish ground color near Andytown—what? You don’t remember Andytown? No wonder. It was swallowed decades ago by the Interstate Highway System!—and more of a golden yellow down Everglades National Park way. Although variable both in ground color and the amount of dark patterning, all are well worth the search to find your choice.

Appalachicola or Goin’s phase may be virtually patternless ot have large often elongate oval darker dorsal pattern. Although variable they are often quite similar to Brook’s King variant from southwestern FL.

Ahhhhh. Florida! The land of the Kings.

This is a typical, but rather dark Ground Skink, also known as Brown-backed Skink.
Ground Skink, Scincella lateralis. This tiny, slender (adult at 3 ½ inches including tail) and occasionally to as much as 5 inches) ranges southward from central eastern NJ to the southernmost of the FL Keys and westward to western TX. It was common in yards, open woodlands, grassy lake and pond edges, where in the latter it does not hesitate to take shelter if frightened. Likewise, it can climb agilely but seldom chooses to do so.

At no stage in its life is this species colorful. The 1 ½ inch long hatchlings are of some shades of brown from nose to tailtip. Adults are also some shade of brown, have a dark, and usually well defined, dorsolateral stripe on each side, are lightest dorsally and laterally, and have a cream to yellowish belly. The species has a smooth, transparent spectacle in each lower eyelid, allowing vision even when the eye is closed.

At one time, this skink was easily found and observed throughout its extensive range. Perhaps in some regions this is still the case. Until 6 years ago they were abundant in our north central FL yard. Today (March 2024) marks the 5th year I have seen none. I’ve flipped cardboard, both damp and dry, rolled long-fallen logs, turned plywood and roofing tins, looked by day, dusk, and nighttime, but no Ground Skinks were to be seen.

A few afternoons ago, on an 85F afternoon,100 miles north of home, I was so excited to see a ground skink crossing the pavement I almost went facedown exiting the car to photograph it

Now this tiny lizard assuredly belongs on the “Why Are The Herps Disappearing” list.