An ESA Conference took me to Tampa this week and I had a bit of evening time to hunt. Cole Maas was kind enough to meet up with me and show me good areas. Although we had a moon and conditions werent great, I was very happy to see the animals we did (with maybe an exception or two this will probably be an exercise of boredom for you Florida herpers. Pardon the background scenery  it looks as though everything may as well have been found in the Sahara as almost everything was on the road.

First, for the more common findsÂbanded waters were plentiful. I liked them better than our most common nerodia, the northern.

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The treefrogs:

Saw several cubansÂof the tree frog variety. I saw more variation in them than I have seen before and a few of them took a hard look to discern that they were indeed cubans. I think these are all cubans, let me know if IÂm wrong.

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Although common, I was excited to see green treefrogs, also in numbers.

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We also saw ribbons and bluish garters:

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Southern toad variation. I was surprised by how marked the raised ridges were on some of them.

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I saw an attractive Florida cottonmouth that got off the narrow road so fast that, hookless, all I could do was follow him into the swamp to try and ward him off. He paused for me to see him but would have nothing of pictures. After several banded waters, this green water, much less common in the area was a nice surprise.

Ranids were everywhere. I think that I was very near the bullfrog end-point and that most of the big boys were pig frogs. One southern leopard was big enough to be a pig at over 4 inches.

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Saw five-lineds, ground skinks, and another lifer in the eastern narrowmouth toad.

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The last evening was good, mostly before dark. I met Cole and we went to some barns/sheds. In the first one, I saw a brown anole shoot into a crevice. I went around the other side to see if it came through and saw an unmistakable orange head. I climbed up there only to find that the corn inside was unattainable. This was my first corn so I would not accept defeat. Instead, I climbed onto the roof and Cole climbed up inside and tapped the part of the roof covering the corn. I proceeded to pry what turned out to be a well-built (but abandoned) roof. Cole pushed from the inside while I pulled and a portion gave way flinging me backward with the piles of dirt and debris on the roof that now adorned meÂjust enough open to get the beautiful snake out of the underlying crevice-- yeehaw. We were running against daylight so these pics were actually taken later when we came back to release him at the end of the night.

We then flipped a bit and one board housed this feisty coachwhip, which after thrashing and bleeding me, suddenly became calm and allowed picturesÂunfortunately I had a camera setting wrong and they didnÂt come out well.

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The snake movement after dark was almost non-existent that night but after many brake-and-jumps for similar looking frogs, I was very excited to see this fellow when I shot out to id one of the many amphibs:

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I also saw many interesting non-herps, including the animals below, foxes, armadillo (which I nearly caught), what could only have been a black bear (from a bit of a distance), deer, raccoons, etcÂ

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The total species:

Peninsula ribbon snake, Thamnophis sauritus sackenii

Eastern garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis

Corn snake, Elaphe guttata guttata

Florida cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus conanti

Banded water snake, Nerodia fasciata

Green water snake, Nerodia cyclopion

Eastern coachwhip, Masticophis flagellum flagellum

Black racer (DOR), Coluber constrictor priapus

Yellow rat snake (very DOR), Elaphe obsoleta quadrivittata

Five-lined skink or Southeastern five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus or Eumeces inexpectatus

Ground skink, Scincella lateralis

House gecko, Hemidactylus mabouia

Brown anole, Anolis sagrei

Green anole, Anolis carolinensis

Green tree frog, Hyla cinerea

Barking tree frog, Hyla gratiosa

Cuban tree frog, Osteopilus septentrionalis

Greenhouse frog, Eleutherodactylus planirostris planirostris

Southern leopard frog, Rana sphenocephala

Pig frog, Rana grylio

Bullfrog?, Rana catesbeiana

Bronze frog?, Rana clamitans clamitans

Narrowmouth toad, Gastrophryne carolinensis

Southern toad, Bufo terrestris

Almost forgot the 2 southern hogs, 1 pine, 3 indigos and 2 corals I found the last night after I went to bed.