The following is a wrap-up by Kevin on our trip. He did a stellar job so I cross posted
Sistru-guru said:sorry so late. Things got away from me.
2008 Florida Keys Trip
Well it is that time of year again, for the 5th year in a row I was escaping the harsh cold of Raleigh, NC and heading down to the only place left (on the east coast) to still go snake hunting the everglades and Florida Keys. The line up was pretty nice, and with gas prices as low as they have been in 4 years, we were able to afford two vehicles and alleviate cramped back seats. Joe, Nate, and I rode in Joes 2003 Subaru Impreza, a very nice all-wheel drive car, a good substitute for a jeep (once gas prices go back up); Mike and Zack rode in Mikes Bonneville, which has made multiple trips down to the keys and glades since the winter of 2004. Come to think of it, that vehicle is probably the most commonly used for our various South Florida trips. Unlike last year, the moon was essentially perfect. The year before it was completely against us, some of the worst possible phases to deal with as far as rd cruising goes; this year though, we had some of the best possible phases.
For previous Xmas outings here is a link to a previous post:
http://www.fieldherpforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14131
12 Dec 08
Joe (who had gone on the 03, 04, 05, and 07 trips), Nate (05, 06, 07), and I left Raleigh at 11:30am, filled up before leaving; gas in Raleigh was $1.57 at the time.
We met up with Mike Martin (04, 05, 06, and 07) and Zack Millner (1st winter trip) in Ridgeland, SC. After a quick adjustment of gear, we set off.
Joe had gone on campus a few days prior to our trip and got a whole bunch of free Full Throttle energy drinks:
Sir Joseph with Full Throttle (Nates pic)
We arrived in the everglades around 2am. We rd cruised once, finding nothing but a DOR rough green in front of our campsite.
That night was a full moon. It was actually the brightest full moon of the year, approximately 33% brighter than any other full moon. The moon was also larger (about 15%) because it was about 25,000 miles closer than previous moons for the year. Here is a picture of the road without any flash, ISO 3200, shutter 25 secs, f/18:
Another, ISO 1600, 30 sec shutter speed, f/13:
After cruising we decided to set up camp, because it was actually warm enough that the mosquitoes were coming out (as opposed to just sleeping under the stars without a tent like normal).
After some drinking and some fire we finally went to sleep around 6:30am.
13 Dec 08
We woke up around noon, drove down to the south end of the glades to look for crocs, saw three.
As well as some osprey:
Gnarly Nate (Joes pic)
Masterful Mike (Joes pic)
Whoa
We headed back north, just to find a freshly killed glades racer. Today we were planning on spending the entire day in the glades. Typically on these trips we do a day or two in the glades, then three or so days in the keys, then back to the glades for a night, and then go home. But the 12th was kind of day 0, our head start day, so today was actually our first official day of the trip.
At some point in the day we were to meet up with Bob Assetto, who we rendezvoused with via this forum.
From here we traveled around looking for the agama site we went to last year. I was really wanting to use my new 40D and my sigma 500mm lens. The lens did great (I thought) for the crocs, now I wanted to see if I could get any closer to the lizards. After some meandering we finally found the site. It was a bit cloudy, but walking the area we found a few individuals hanging out.
We got some quick breakfast/ lunch/ dinner at some chicken place (because our CiCis was closed down). Bob still hadnt shown up.
We started cruising, tonight was going to be the worst night of the trip (moon wise). Team A; Joe, Nate, and I, turned up a ribbon, a DOR florida green water, a cottonmouth, and a garter. Car 2 (Mike and Zack) found a garter and a freshly hit DOR diamondback!! A little baby to boot, just like last year It was killed within 15 mins too.
Bob ended up cruising that night as well; apparently he had seen a 6 ft burm at 6pm. We had driven past Bob a couple of times that night, just didnt realize it was him. Closer towards the end of the night we helped one of the everglades staff fix a flat tire.
The cottonmouth from the night:
We camped one more night in the glades.
14 Dec 08
8:30am woke up, broke camp.
(a pic while the vehicles were still clean)
We met up with Bob on the way to Anhinga Trail. We stopped by another road to walk through some habitat that had produced well for us the previous year, and has produced very well for a friend of mine that lives in the keys. Unfortunately all we found a huge diamondback shed skin, and a subadult Florida cottonmouth that I almost stepped on.
After this little romp in the woods we headed over to the very popular (for tourists) Anhinga trail. There next to the board walk was an everglades racer that looked like it had been beaten to death. An always disparaging sight in a national park. We walked the length of the trail, photographing birds and gators as we saw fit:
Green Heron
American alligator
Little Blue Heron
Double crested cormorant catching a walking catfish
After doing that for awhile Nate and I went into the gift store to look for knit-knacks, books, shirts, what have you. Inside they had a little rubber subadult coral snake, about 14 inches or so. We purchased it with the hopes of using it on the other road cruising team later in the trip. While we were in there a middle aged man came in and started looking through one of the ID guides. He pointed to a page and said I think this was it, wait a minute, those colors arent exactly right. I asked him what the snake looked like. He said it was red, yellow, and black. Of course I was thinking scarlet king just off the bat but asked him if the red and the yellow touched, he said it did. Just to verify I showed him one of the little rubber coral snakes and asked him if it essentially looked like this. He said it looked exactly like that, about the same size as well. So I asked how long ago this was; about 5 mins, right there on the end of the Gumbo Limbo trail. Could you show me where?
We headed to the trail, starting from the end. He walked me to the exact spot, said it was just crawling across the path and went into the leaf litter. I carefully poked around but nothing turned up. Oh well, still a cool observation, it was overcast, looked like it could rain any minute, and was in the middle of the day (12:45pm).
1:10pm left the glades with Bob in tow (so now our little group was 3 vehicles, 6 people). We stopped by my favorite little restaurant in the northern keys to get some traditional hogfish!!
We were running a little late. We had planned to stop by Mogis house, but if we wanted to make it to the southern keys by sunset we had to leave immediately. We told Bob to go on ahead, because he had to square away a hotel on Big Pine. I called Moses, who is another forum member that wanted to rendezvous with us, I told him we were running late and what the game plan was for the night. We were dividing ourselves onto various keys to prevent crowding and increase chances. Mike and Zack took one key, a fairly large one, so I sent Bob and Moses to cruise the same key. Joe, Nate, and I took a different key. The same location where we had found a diamondback back on 17 Dec 05.
As we drove south we hit spots of rain. Apparently from the moment Mike and Zack hit their destination it was drizzling/raining nonstop. Joe, Nate, and I turned up a red mangrove water with some black flecks, followed by a freshly hit rosy rat baby (hit by a car that passed us). A few minutes later we found a normal phase young-of-year mangrove water. Then we cruised for awhile without finding anything. We called up Mike to see how they were doing zilch. That is when he told me about the rain the whole time. We headed to another key, one that previously had never produced anything at night, even though there is no reason why it shouldnt. We went up and down that a few times before running into Bob and Moses. They had found a mangrove water as well, back on the same key that Mike was cruising. This was the first time I got to meet Moses in person, we chatted for a little bit. Earlier I had mentioned to Bob that mangroves and rosys were essentially guarantees on these keys and that 90% of what you find is going to be one of those two species. Bob thought this was ridiculous to guarantee a rosy. As both vehicles were pulled over and I was standing outside Bobs Cherokee, talking to him, I looked up in the head lights and said is that a snake up there? At the far end of the lights there was a little sub-adult rosy rat stretched across the road; our first nocturnal snake on this road. We grabbed it to photograph tomorrow in the daylight (we had done the same with the normal and red phase mangroves). All animals would be released tomorrow.
So after saying goodbye to Bob and Moses Bob going back to Big Pine Key, Moses heading down to Key West to stay in a hotel with his parents, we met up with Mike and Zack to find our campsite for the night. The awesome campsite we had found from the year before we couldnt get to anymore, but there was another location nearby so we decided to set up camp there.
Much like at the campsite from last year we walked around trying to spear some food for the night; crabs, shrimp, and fish. I gave Mike my spear, Joe had his own, and they set off to find food. Nate and I photographed the red phase mangrove. Moses really wanted to photograph the animals during the day, I normally photograph whenever I have them, but didnt have a problem with holding on to them for a few hours. I wasnt going to deprive him of his photographic request or anything; despite this, I still wanted to get some night time photographs you never know which you will end up liking more. So Nate and I photographed the mangrove while everyone else went looking for food.
(Nate in the corner)
They came back with some stone crabs, a blue crab, and a few shrimp, but no fish. We put them on ice and planned to eat them tomorrow with some lobster (provided we ended up going snorkeling tomorrow).
Instead of catching fish with my spear, Mike decided to choke himself:
It was quite a bit cooler in the keys at night than in the glades, mostly due to the availability of a breeze and being surrounded by water, so opted to sleep in my bivy sac. Joe set up the huge tent for everyone else. We had a small fire; Joe broke open his mead and hard cider that he brewed at home, and eventually we all fell asleep. I think I was the first, and I think Mike had a pretty harsh night from drinking too much mead.
Around 4am or so I heard the soft trickle of rain drops on the skin of my bivy sac. The soft rain turned pretty hard and all of a sudden I heard perfuse cussing from someone in the tent. I guess they didnt set up the rain fly and most of the people inside were too drunk to care, but the rain did rouse Nate. While it was happening I had no idea who it was cussing that much; it was pretty extensive. It wasnt until the next morning that I found out Nate was spitting all those words.
15 Dec 08
I woke up around 7am:
(campsite and sleeping bag)
Everyone else was still asleep/ passed out. I called Moses to see where he was. He was en route and not far. I told him everyone else was still asleep for the moment and that we could drive a few roads, flip some nearby trash, and that maybe when we were done they would be up.
We drove down a few roads to look for any early morning DORs or AORs. This is usually how and where I see lower Keys Ribbons. We didnt see a thing. Next we were gonna stop by a quick tin spot, but about that time Nate called. He said he was up but the rest were still sleeping. I told him wed swing by and pick him up. When we arrived, everyone else was stumbling out of the tent as well.
Bob showed up as well. He had found a box turtle on the way over. We took the opportunity to photograph the turtle and some of the mangroves from the night before in the daylight:
Normal phase N. clarkii
Red phase:
From here we went to release the snakes and turtle, then go flip some trash. The trash site turned up a racer, but it eluded capture.
From here we traveled to Blue Hole on Big Pine. A quick walk around the park revealed a gator, a bark anole, several brown anoles, a few green iguanas, and an ashy gecko (Sphaerodactylus elegans).
Next we went to the ringneck/oolitica trash site. Here we found 3 racers and a mating pair of Florida box turtles.
After that we got lunch at a new pizza joint; 2 large pizzas with 2 toppings for $20. It worked out pretty well. Came down to roughly $3 per person for two slices of pizza. Not too bad.
