A photographic gallery of the reptiles, amphibians of Ohio dedicated to increasing the appreciation, awareness and public perception of these often misunderstood animals.
The goal of Buckeye Herps is to glorify the herpetofauna of Ohio. Ohio is blessed with richness in reptile and amphibian diversity. Many of the current and past leaders in the field of herpetology have their roots in the Buckeye State and it is my hope that others will continue to love Ohio's wildlife and uphold the tradition of discovery. Be aware some of these animals are under extreme amounts of pressure due to habitat loss and may be more sensitive to human disturbance. Enjoy the Buckeye Herps, but please tread carefully.
Spring has arrived and it is past due that I finish up my
Michigan 2012 record keeping tasks. All of my records have been
entered and tallied for a few months, but I had to update and fix
some bugs in the database (Thanks Carl!). I am three to fourth
months ahead my curve compared to
last
years results. With spring approaching, and new entries
starting to come in, here is how 2011 turned out for me.
Let us see how I did with my goals for 2012:
1. Wood turtles from new river systems.
2. Rifle River wood turtle.
3. Fox snakes from new counties, specifically Macomb.
4. SE Michigan Spotted turtle
5. MI spotted salamander.
6. MI newt.
7. Lay more tin. More tin.
8. MI Box turtle.
9. Herp the UP (a western fox, wood turtle, or mink frog would make this even more sweet.)
10. Record a respectable 150+ records for 2012.
BH
Let us see how I did with my goals for 2012:
1. Wood turtles from new river systems.
I made a much stronger effort to get to some new river systems
in 2012. Having my own kayak definitely helped, but I still got off
to a very slow start and didn't paddle until August. I spent many
hours on the water from then on though and found woods in three new
rivers. Check! I also struck out numerous times this year, for more
than years past. I explored the edge of their range and
distributional gaps in records more than previously and view this
as a part of doing business.
2. Rifle River wood turtle.
Never made it out to the Rifle this year. I planned on it a
few times, but skipped it for weather. It will be on the list again
this year. If anyone does hear or have recent confirmed Rifle River
Michigan wood turtle sightings, I would love to hear about
them.
3. Fox snakes from new counties, specifically Macomb.
Epic fail. I worked hard at finding a Macomb Co fox snake. I
hiked through patches of the remaining habitat on wonderful days in
April, May, June, July and August and struck out. I have found
another area close by I want to check out this year and hopefully
this luck will turn.
4. SE Michigan Spotted turtle
Epic success! I found Clemmys in 2 new SE Michigan counties
last year. It was a banner year for them. I never saw great
numbers, but was able to find one or two at a bunch of new
locations for myself. This will continue to be a huge area of focus
for 2013.
5. MI spotted salamander.
Embarrassingly, I failed yet again. Hoping to turn this around
in 2013...
6. MI newt.
Still no newts.
7. Lay more tin. More tin.
While not nearly enough, I did put some more boards out in a
possible massassauga field close to home.
8. MI Box turtle.
A lone DOR boxie along a SW section of highway sadly cleared
this goal for me. Now to turn up a live one.
9. Herp the UP (a western fox, wood turtle, or mink frog would make this even more sweet.)
I got as far north as Mackinac Island, which I guess
technically falls into Mackinac County, part of the UP. For my
purposes, I am not counting this though.
10. Record a respectable 150+ records for 2012.
and the final goal... I logged 193 records in 2012, coming oh
so close to breaking the 200 record mark! This was huge for me. I
discuss total numbers a few years back in
this post about the 2010 field season, and set my 2011
goal at 200. I herped real hard that year and only logged 145, so I
had lowered my standards to a reachable 150. Looks like that 200
mark is reachable after all.
Which brings us to 2013... I am going to try and limit a few
goals in an effort to not spread myself thin. I am also hoping to
spend some time out of state during prime time - May and June.
Taking this into account my goals are (in no particular
order):
1. Rifle River Woody
2. Macomb County foxy
3. Michigan spotted salamander
4. New wood turtle rivers
5. Log 175 herps for 2012
So many others missing the list, but I am trying to focus
here. Honorable mentions include green snakes, hoggies, box
turtles, the UP, Belle Isle etc. So much to do, so little
time.
A quick look at my Michigan 2012 map.
And my total Michigan map - 644 records so far. Still lots of
ground to cover out there.
What are your goals for 2013?
Happy Herping!
BH
Herps on Bora Bora were few and far between. There were geckos on most of the buildings at night, of which I tried to ignore. One day we came in the room to find this bear eating gecko.
Other than these, I quickly noticed small skinks around the
beach and on the palm trees. I believe these are Snake-Eyed
Skinks
Cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus. I photographed a bunch of
them and didn't notice any other different appearing animals.
I only shot with my macro setup on two occasions sadly. When you have chances at manta, it can be hard to convince yourself to put the macro lens on your rig. I snorkeled around the coral gardens by the resort briefly with my macro lens on one of the first few days.
|
| Textile Cone Snail Conus textile |
|
| Neon Damsel Pomacentrus coelestis |
|
| Black-axil Chromis Chromis atripectoralis |
There were a few lionfish that
were hiding in the structure and coral during the day. One night I
saw a few of them swimming around after dark, but I never had a
chance to photograph them when they were not hiding.
|
| Clearfin Lionfish Pterois radiata |
This crab was hanging out on one
of the wooden supports holding up the walkway to the
bungalows.
Near the end of the trip, we
booked one of the afternoon "fun dives", which are basically for
beginners or people getting certified. I knew we would dive the
site with the eagle rays and sand flats, but figured with the group
of beginners I could split off and stay beneath the boat and
explore the reef. As it turns out, my buddy Rob and I were the only
people on the books to dive. We ended up with a private dive as we
explored the reef for macro life. It turned out to be one of my
favorite dives of the trip!
I finally took the opportunity to
photograph some of the christmas tree worms I had been seeing all
trip.
I also enjoyed focusing on the clownfish that were swimming in and out of the anemones.
Other fish in the anemones included these Three-spot Dascyllus Dascyllus trimaculatus.
This Peacock Razorfish Iniistius pavo was able to react to my strobes and was often photographed in a blur of movement or in a different orientation. Only once or twice did it stay still.
Julian, our divemaster, turned up a couple small crustaceans to pose for the camera.
Snubnose Grouper Epinephelus macrospilos were commonly perched along the reef.
|
| Humbug Dascyllus Dascyllus aruanus |
We finished our macro dive after 70 minutes of bottom time with a few nice finds. This enormous moray eel was out of his hole and enjoying being cleaned by a Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse Labroides dimidiatus.
We had seen one of these small pipefish earlier in the trip, but I was unable to do them justice with the wide-angle lens. We found three of these on a small grouping of coral.
|
| Corythoichthys conspicillatus |
Finally, right under our boat in about 15 feet of water, Julian turned up this small stonefish. It was the only one we saw on the trip and I was ecstatic to be able to see it.
|
| Reef Stonefish Synanceia verrucosa |
All in all we had a wonderful time diving and enjoying what Bora Bora had to offer. There was one other memorable encounter on our second to last day that I have to finish with. Just after a manta decided to drift by us, I looked ahead along the coral and saw this cruising along top the reef.
Hawksbill sea turtle Eretmochelys imbricata
I didn't quite get the shots I wanted, my strobes were positioned very far out for large mantas, but I really enjoyed swimming along this turtle.
Happy Herping ;)
BH
If you want to read the rest: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.
Bora Bora 2013: Part III Wide Angle
Many of the dives we went on really featured large animals.
It was very hard to get myself to commit to placing the macro lens
on my rig for a day of diving. The end result is that I primarily
shot with my Tokina 10-17mm and the Nauticam 9" dome port.
A few would cooperate.
Many of our dives focused on finding larger wildlife to photograph. At one site, we would drift along sandy bottoms, and then rise up a coral wall, finishing over a shallow reef at the boat. Along the the sandy bottoms usually you could see 15-20 different Spotted Eagle Rays Aetobatus narinari.
I had a hard time photographing these. They were extremely skittish and would turn and run quickly. The plan was to wander into their path slowly and then hug the bottom in the sand and try not to disturb them. Flash ended up spooking them very quickly, so I always shot them in natural light. Twice using these methods an eagle ray cruised a couple feet over top of me. Most turned and fled even when trying to remain innocuous. Most of the time, this is what you would see.
Which really left just one other large animal. When researching Bora Bora I had the lagoon had some cleaning stations that almost year round would attract an animal I have wanted to see for as long as I can remember...
The first time diving the site we struck out. Here we are on the second dive, just waiting patiently...
A large shape coming out of the gloom.
Manta Rays!
We ended up seeing them on three of our dives. Two of these times we saw numerous individuals and a few good moments with them. One time, there was just a fleeting fly by and I never and tried to raise my camera.
This concludes the wide-angle shooting. Stay tuned for more!
BH
If you want to read the rest: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.
Bora Bora might be known best for the aqua blue lagoon, and
the over-the-water bungalows, but I was interested in finding out
what we might see diving. I was initially very attracted to the
prospects of numerous species of shark and rays. Let the fun
begin!
Outside the lagoon we dove a couple dives that featured deep
blue water, great visibility and an abundance of life. One of these
dives was a pleasant drift dive, and another involved mooring above
a couple craters just outside the wall the waves broke on. Usually,
just after jumping in the water, you would look down and spot 2-3
blacktip reef sharks slowly circling you and the boat. These dives
were great fun.
|
| Here is a large school of what I believe to be Blackfin Barracuda Sphyraena qenie I noticed while descending. |
Blacktip reef sharks
Carcharhinus melanopterus were usually all around us,
although they rarely got too close.
Grey reef sharks were less common, but one or two routinely
showed up on one of the dives.
|
| Grey reef shark Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos |
We saw a decent amount of white tip reef sharks, especially
solitary animals a few times while diving in the lagoon. They never
got close though and I only have a very poor picture of one. I was
bummed we missed out on a Bora Bora special, the Lemon Shark
Negaprion brevirostris. There is a dive where you can be
literally surrounded by dozens of them. Unfortunately, a diver had
been pretty tragically bit the day we arrived, so that site was all
but closed. Another group saw a solitary lemon on a dive while we
were in the water with them, but none of our group noticed. It
reportedly stuck around for 10 minutes at the end of the dive and
gave great close up looks. I also missed out on tawny nurse sharks.
The divemasters reported they were rare, but a guy at our resort
said he saw a handful in a short while snorkeling on the other side
of our motu in the reef. The day I tried near the end of the trip I
got rained out miserably. On our last day, a fisherman looking
fellow in a small dingy tied up before we put in to a site and
started talking excitedly with our divemasters in French. The
French divers on the boat started freaking out, and one finally
turned around and said there was a large tiger shark sighted that
morning by the man in the boat at this site. They were not excited.
I threw on my gear and jumped in quickly with the camera, fingers
crossed. Cyril, our divemaster, told me he would pay me for the
days dives if we saw one... No tigers were had.
Even with the wide-angle, I spent time trying to photograph
some of the fish with limited success.
|
| Neon Damsels Pomacentrus coelestis |
|
| Orange-finned Clownfish Amphiprion chrysopterus were common sights around the anemones. |
I tried to photograph as many fish as possible, but many did
not turn out.
|
| Bignose Unicornfish Naso vlamingii |
|
| Did I turn my right strobe off here on accident? |
Sometimes, you wish you had your macro port on, but you have to
make do with what you have.
|
| Reef Lizardfish Synodus variegatus |
|
| Whitespot Soldierfish Myripristis woodsi |
This
was a common site on some of our drift dives.
|
| Yellow-tailed Dascyllus Dascyllus flavicaudus |
|
| Bignose Unicornfish Naso vlamingii blue phase |
|
| Titan Triggerfish Balistoides viridescens |
One dive Cyril found two octopi hanging out on the same coral
formation. These were the only ones we would see all trip.
I had found a smaller, lighter colored eel species on our
first day while exploring the coral gardens. I never saw it again,
but we ended up seeing a ton of large Giant Moray
Gymnothorax javanicus. We would usually see a few on each
dive.
|
| I am unclear of the species. |
|
| Most tried to hide. |
Many of our dives focused on finding larger wildlife to photograph. At one site, we would drift along sandy bottoms, and then rise up a coral wall, finishing over a shallow reef at the boat. Along the the sandy bottoms usually you could see 15-20 different Spotted Eagle Rays Aetobatus narinari.
I had a hard time photographing these. They were extremely skittish and would turn and run quickly. The plan was to wander into their path slowly and then hug the bottom in the sand and try not to disturb them. Flash ended up spooking them very quickly, so I always shot them in natural light. Twice using these methods an eagle ray cruised a couple feet over top of me. Most turned and fled even when trying to remain innocuous. Most of the time, this is what you would see.
Which really left just one other large animal. When researching Bora Bora I had the lagoon had some cleaning stations that almost year round would attract an animal I have wanted to see for as long as I can remember...
The first time diving the site we struck out. Here we are on the second dive, just waiting patiently...
A large shape coming out of the gloom.
Manta Rays!
We ended up seeing them on three of our dives. Two of these times we saw numerous individuals and a few good moments with them. One time, there was just a fleeting fly by and I never and tried to raise my camera.
This concludes the wide-angle shooting. Stay tuned for more!
BH
If you want to read the rest: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.
Sometimes you get sent a picture that knocks your socks off.
I opened this email and was blown away! The location was Ohio, and
I was able to guess the general area with ease. Many thanks to all
readers who send in their pictures, but I am always stoked to open
up one like this.
Spring should be just around the corner. Hopefully, my hognose luck will be better this year than last.
BH
Spring should be just around the corner. Hopefully, my hognose luck will be better this year than last.
BH
"Also, there were many objects to overturn, and there was always the chance of finding something unusual beneath any log or rock.... Southeastern Ohio was unquestionably our favorite collecting area." Roger Conant
If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to contact me
All images and text are property of Jason Folt unless otherwise noted. If you would like to use an image, please contact me and ask first.
© 2006 Last Updated: 4/2011