IL-GA-FL Part 2

 On the morning of March 8th, we headed south to our next destination - Pigeon Mountain, located along the Cumberland Plateau in northwestern Georgia.  Here, we hoped to find the green salamander (Aneides aeneus) and the Pigeon Mountain salamander (Plethodon petraeus).  The Pigeon Mountain salamander is endemic to this area and found nowhere else on earth.  While Tom searched close to a road, Nathan and I hiked all over the place, ascending and descending steep hillsides, getting wet from water dripping over large rocks, and taking in the stunning scenery.  We didn’t find any greens, but we saw approximately twenty five Pigeon Mountain salamanders, one of which we were able to photograph without causing any stress to the animal.  It is a beautiful salamander, similar in appearance to its cousin the slimy salamander but awash in light browns or oranges along its dorsum, reminiscent of a deep-space cloud nebula.  

Pigeon Mountain outcropping

Waterfall

Nathan and I looking for salamanders behind the falls.  Photo by Tom

Nathan putting some elbow grease into it

Pigeon Mountain salamander

Violet woodsorrel

Violets growing from a crack in the rock face

The three of us convened at the car several hours later, where Nathan and I were surprised to see that Tom had found a southern devil scorpion (Vaejovis carolinianus).  As an enthusiastic scorpiologist, Tom was smiling ear to ear.  

Southern devil scorpion

Tom with scorpion.  This was out makeshift photo staging rock.

We would have stayed much longer but we had business in Tallahassee.  Another long drive (6.5 hours) and we were at the home of Peter Kleinhenz and his finance, who graciously let us stay in their home for two nights.  After a quick greeting with our hosts, Tom, Nathan, and I drove to a nearby lake where a large alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) once stalked Nathan while he searched the shoreline for herps that can’t eat you.  In the pitch black darkness, we pulled into a gravel lot for a boat landing, grabbed our flashlights, and headed toward the riprap-lined shore via an elevated walkway.  This led to a concrete spillway, where others have had some luck in the herp department. We saw some pig frogs (Rana grylio) squatting in the muddy shallows and heard southern leopard frogs calling further out beyond the scope of our flashlights.  While Tom shined the lake from the walkway, Nathan and I began flipping rocks, hoping to find a mudsnake (Farancia abacura).  Within minutes, Nathan found a rather lethargic adult banded water snake (Nerodia fasciata).  From the boardwalk above, Tom wanted to see the snake.  We tried to pass the snake to Tom a la Michaelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” but we couldn’t quite reach his hand.  No problem - I placed the snake in my net and raised the net to Tom.  Eureka!

1:30 AM

Pig frog

While Tom evaluated the Nerodia, Nathan spotted a large, dead mudsnake.  It was partially wedged under a rock and appeared smelled to have been dead for some time.  Nathan was dead-set on collecting this snake for the museum collection (it should be mentioned that all three of us possessed the proper permits for all three states in which we actively herped).  However, his sense of smell was on lunch break or something because while I gagged on the stench of decomposing mudsnake, Nathan had no issue with taking it back to the parking lot.  Eventually he was persuaded to simply collect the head, minimizing the source of the awful smell.  Sealed tight in a container of preservative, we now could resume our search.  Down by the water’s edge, several cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorous), one adult and two young, were seen forging among the emergent vegetation.  The eyeshine of a large alligator nearby kept us on our Ps and Qs as we continued our search.

The spillway presented an obstacle that put me in my place and reminded me that I am no longer in my 20s (or 30s for that matter).  Below the spillway was a narrow metal ledge and wooden supports overhead.  If one were so inclined, one could navigate a shortcut across the spillway by stepping on the ledge and holding on to the support beams overhead.  Below was deep, black water, the kind I really don’t want to be in at this point in my life.  Nathan skillfully made his way across this route to get to the other side of the spillway and encouraged me to do the same.  I sized up this challenge by stepping on the ledge and supporting myself by holding on to the beams.  Wobbly and stiff, my muck boots just didn’t feel right on the ledge.  I trusted my upper body strength but overall I had a bad feeling that I was going to end up in the lake.  The other option was to backtrack and walk to the other side from the boardwalk, and I wanted to conserve my energy.  I waffled for a minute until I decided that it would be in my best interest to just walk around to the other side.  I kind of feel like I’m going to be making more of these kinds of decisions as I’m getting older - and no, it’s not easy to concede to middle age, especially when I feel young and spry much of the time.  Bah!

Just say no

As the night wore on, we remained steadfast in our quest to find Amphiuma.  Nathan spotted one in the water but due to the structure of the rocks was unable to catch it.  Shortly afterward, he shouted that he had found a black swamp snake (Liodytes pygaea).  I turned to look in his direction, and with the snake in one hand, he quickly grabbed at another target - a southeastern five-lined skink (Plestiodon inexpectatus).  Both had been under the same rock.  I rushed over to where he stood and suggested he just release the lizard because we were THRILLED to find Liodytes.  It was a first for both of us, and we celebrated with a high-five.  The black swamp snake is a small, chiefly aquatic natricine native to the southeastern United States.  It is dark brown or black in color with a colorful orange belly.  We took some photos of this animal before releasing it near its original location.  Around 2:00 AM, we decided to call it a night.  On the way back to the car I found a southern cricket frog (Acris gryllus).  It would represent the final herp of the day, as we were in need of some sleep, whether or not we felt tired (I was not).  

Black swamp snake

Young, lean cottonmouth

See part three for more!