January, Jonesing for herps. 1-13-13

Well, Saturday was a blast, so we figured we'd try again! The temps were supposed to reach the 60s!! We stayed nearby all the same... we went to the woods in Suffolk County. The ones behind the Greek Church. Yeah- those ones.

Well, the temps never got close to 60, but it wasn't too bad. Very cloudy still. We did much flipping, but to no avail. Spots that have produced snakes in the past taunted us...

There was even an old skin attached to one of the shingles...


Finally, a sheet of tin gave us a couple of Redbacks!! All was not lost!


This spot is also very good for Spotted Salamanders but despite our efforts, none were found.

There were lots of eggs about, mostly slug eggs. This shot is of two different types... could one be Redback? I'm not sure.

At any rate, there's a pretty good centipede photo-bomb going on here!

We got to an area that has produced Two-Lined Salamanders before...

But despite getting soaked and muddy, none turned up.

Further along, as Andrea was getting fresh with a tree, I found a lovely Leadback!


Here's a shot of me trying really hard to find some Two-Lines at another point in the woods. Nope.


That was going to do it for us. Just three Redbacks for the day. But it's still frigging January! So there!