The Spring of 2009 saw me heading down to the southeastern United States for herps for the first time. York had not been in a while and so we headed down that way and met up with Matt and Derek for some classic Florida herps. Anything was good for me but I really wanted to see an Eastern Diamondback. The last part of the trip was focused on seeing one of those wild Burmese Pythons in the Everglades.

York and I flew into Orlando, grabbed our rental vehicle and were off. We began heading north towards Georgia and South Carolina and found places to flip for snakes. And the first snake flipped was this Southern Black Racer (Coluber constrictor priapus) - a species we would see plenty of.

At one of the next spots we stopped at we found this snake... Check! A pretty good-sized Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus). That velvetty color on it was beautiful! I pretty much stepped over it as it was partially under some tin.

An invasive Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) seen in town one morning on a fence post. It was still pretty chilly down there most mornings and we didn't see a ton of them out most of the time we were flipping.

This Florida Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus carinatus) was crossing a dirt road next to some houses.

This adult Yellow Ratsnake (Pantherophis obsoletus quadrivittata), as it was formerly known, was flipped along the way. Now it is known as the Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis).

As we continued our journey northward, we flipped this little Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius barbouri) along the road next to a horse pasture.

We arrived in Georgia and met up with Matt to hit some flipping spots. Nothing sexier to a flipper than a nice stack of tin... especially one where the tin is nicely spaced apart. But we didn't even have to flip anything to find a snake. This Black Racer (Coluber c. priapus) was sitting on top of the stack.

We also turned up a few salamanders - which were a very pleasant surprise. A chunky Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum), an Ocmulgee Slimy Salamander (Plethodon ocmulgee) and a South Carolina Slimy (Plethodon variolatus).

With some amphibians found, we headed to the Griffin Ridge Wildlife Management Area. Seeing this sign really had me hoping to see a nice big Indigo crossing the dirt road. The only snake we saw on the roads there though was this Northern Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys a. aestivus).

We parked the truck and got out to hike a bit. We were not finding much wildlife until Matt stopped me in my tracks. He had spotted something... it was a pair of Eastern Hognose Snakes (Heterodon platyrhinos) copulating. Holy smokes! Great spot for sure. The smaller male was gray in color while the much larger female was a gold color with black saddles.

And boy do hognoses know how to play dead... and they go all out!

A shot of the male with his upturned snout that gives it its name.

As we drive around looking for things to flip, old barns are probably one of the favorites as they provide food and shelter for snakes. Second to that are piles of tin or plywood right at habitat boundaries. We found a nice stack of tin right at the edge of a grass field and forest. There had to be some snakes in this pile. As we flipped through the tin, we turned up this young EDB pretty quickly. We sat it in my backpack while we continued to flip through the rest of the tin. At the very bottom, we saw a dead rat that was still bleeding... because it had been struck by this big adult EDB. Two EDBs in the same stack of tin was pretty awesome. Perhaps even funnier was that a few old guys came up to see what we were doing and started telling us all their snake stories.

Sorry for having disturbed this big EDB's meal, we placed the rat next to it to see if it would eat in front of us. It did not. You can see the blood on the rat and on the lip of the snake. We re-stacked the tin and placed the EDB and the rat back underneath. Hopefully that meal did not go to waste.

This rat snake from the southern Georgia area is probably a concoction of three rat snakes from the region: the Gray Rat Snake (Pantherophis spiloides), the Western (Black) Rat Snake (Pantherophis obsoletus), and the Eastern Rat Snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) - more specifically what used to be the Yellow Rat Snake (Pantherophis obsoletus quadrivittata).

We flipped this Eastern Chain Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula getula) under a little sign in someone's yard... ha!

After a great time in Georgia, we left Matt and headed south to pick up Derek at the Orlando Airport to head down to the Everglades. We typed in Orlando Airport in the GPS and saw that we had a couple of extra hours to kill. So, it was off to look for more stuff to flip. We found this lot with some boards and tin and flipped another lifer for me - an Eastern Coral Snake (Micrurus fulvius).

Well, we had an "Oops" moment... It appeared that the GPS did not update to Eastern Standard Time from Mountain Standard Time. So while we were finding and photographing that Coral Snake, Derek was landing at Orlando. We quickly booked it down to Orlando where we were greeted by a very patient Derek. We threw his stuff in the car and headed south. Along the way, we stopped to flip at various sites. Pickings were kinda slim. We stopped at a spot in Florida to look for Eastern Indigos and I thought I saw the black tail of a large snake disappear into the grass but I quickly lost it. Could very well have been an Eastern... dang! Later that day, I was very excited though to see my first ever wild Corn Snake (Pantherophis guttata). It was not the sexiest looking animal but it was amazing!

We also found these two bodies of baby Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus). Sadly we did not see any live ones on the trip.

We eventually arrived at our destination - Everglades National Park. Florida is a very long state. Let's just say that the Everglades were everything I could have hoped for and more. It was gorgeous at every turn.

Not long after we entered the park were we greeted by a sausage of a Florida Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorous conanti) on the road in a very standard Agkistrodon road-basking pose. And it quickly assumed the very standard cottonmouth pose when we approached it.

Our target species was the infamous Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus). Just the thought of finding a SE Asian python in the United States was something we were all very excited about despite the unfortunate consequences of having an introduced population of giant predators wreaking havoc on the native wildlife. The signage was out for everyone to read.

When they say Florida has a lot of gators, you really don't appreciate it until you actually see for yourself. We saw plenty for sure driving through ENP. I only took a few photos of the gators... mostly the larger ones as the smaller ones were quick to flee.

Here was one right next to a softshell.

We didn't have too much luck the first couple of nights looking for our target - the invasive Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus) so we checked some spots outside the park for possible burms. More scenery - I mean, it looks like a freakin' painting.

A pair of Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) with a young chick out foraging.

We stopped and walked some of the trails and watched some gorgeous Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga) preen and catch fish.

Also saw this big, gorgeous Florida Kingsnake (Lampropeltis floridana) which was easily one of the prettiest snakes of the trip.

One species I was really hoping to see was not the alligator but the American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus). So we kinda cheated and went down to the Flamingo Marina where one hung out. It was far away so I didn't get a great look at it but it was neat to see. For some reason, I very much enjoy crocodiles over alligators.

Road cruising was not as productive because of the on-coming (and then present) rains but we did turn up a big Brown Watersnake (Nerodia taxispilota) and a soaking wet juvenile cottonmouth.

As we were on the side of the road photographing the big Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) below, a Park Ranger stopped and asked what we were doing. He said it was good that we only had our cameras with us and no collecting equipment. Of course, we were just there to take photos. We talked briefly and then we were on our way.

The corn snakes down in the ENP were really nice (in appearance) in my opinion. But some were not so nice temperament-wise.

Well, that was it. After several days of being down in the Everglades and surrounding areas, we had not found our target. And on our last day (we had to be back in Orlando to catch our flight that evening), we took one last shot along a canal just outside ENP that looked pretty decent. We quickly saw a couple of Florida Racers (Coluber constrictor paludicola) and were able to catch one for some quick photos. These had a bluish tint to them and in my opinion were a lot prettier than the black racers we had seen earlier on the trip.

And then it happened. York yelled "I got one!". Derek was on the other side of the canal and had to come all the way around but there it was: a 6 - 7' burm out on the bank of the canal. It wasn't a huge snake but it was a Burmese Python in Florida. Of course we had to all pose with it :)

It took to the water no problem either...

This sign was posted along the canal...

Very satisfied at the way this trip to the Southeastern United States was, we headed back to the car and back towards the airport. On the way to the car, we came across one last herp. Another invasive species. A Cuban Tree Frog (Osteopilus septentrionalis) hopped across the banks while we walked out.

And that was the end of another great trip! I found many of my target species and pretty much everything was a lifer. The EDBs were probably the highlight but seeing things like a corn snake in the wild and experiencing Everglades National Park were things I'll never forget.