Hey guys, i just got back from France . Did a little herpetological tourism, although the reptiles are not out yet, but you'd be suprised of what we can find in Paris, MOUAHAHAHA!!!!

I see you guys have been able to find controversive opinions in the meanwhile, hehe. I guess it's part of the fun of keeping the morph people out, there has to be a whiney one every once in a while .

I should have some pics of the zoo at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle as well as some more taken at La Ferme Tropicale, where i met some lovely little Thamnophis atratus, hmmmm... Pics comming soon .

phil.

Warning:
The following post contains "content".

These photographs were all taken today, under natural conditions. Only Natural Snakes are represented in these images. No snakes were "caught", "fondled", or otherwise interfered with in the creation of these images. This afternoon was an excercise in observation only. It's all "in situ" for this entry..........

In addition, please note that there are no "investment opportunities" hidden here.

Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis..........as observed today in all of The Glory Of Spring 2009.






















Beauty among the refuse.
























Count 'em......

LD/50 a écrit:

I think I found some of beekeeper's teeth and one of his lungs when I was mopping and vacuuming the Lounge after closing time on Monday night, if anybody knows how to contact him we can hold his bits in the Lost & Found until he can claim them. .

Oh my. Sorry, Steven. After your shift, I went in and cleaned out the Lounge's "Lost & Found" department (actually an old "SAQ" box from the store on St. Denis ). I saw the terrible condition of those broken teeth, and a couple of badly damaged organs, and tossed them all in the dumpster out back. I really figured that nobody would ever be able to make use of them again.

Regards,
DP

Great pictures Don. Looks like spring is here... I mean there... euh, I mean where you are... hehe...

Still a bit too cold here...

My guess is 5 on that "count the garters pic"...

WOW man its the first time I check this post Its amazing , I love the pictures , Great Post thanks for sharing , where do you find Thamnophis sirtalis infernalis they are so nice

Excellent field shots of our beloved Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis.

I made an interesting observation the other day. Notice the arboreal tendencies of juvenile Pituophis melanoleucus lodingi…………………well maybe not but it is a funny series of pictures.







And some gratuitous cribo in shed pics. Note how opaque the eyes get.



Jeremy

I thank lady Persephone, goddess of spring, and D. Pogue for the pictures... heartwarming!

Nir a écrit:

Still a bit too cold here...

She shouldn't be too long to come visit here.

P.S. A small Wikipedia search tells me there are a great deal of goddesses of spring... so take your pick : Beiwe and Rana Niejta (Sami), Vesna (Slavic), Atroa (Oeridian), Thallo (Greek, of spring growth, buds and flowers), Eostre/Ostara (pagan Saxon), Maia (old Italic), Flora (Roman, of spring and flowers), Persephone (Greek, again?)...

Thallo still needs some thawing out on this end of the world... We have had a couple of nice days so if it keeps up and can stay closer to 10ish I'm hoping to see something similar to Don's great pictures..

A query for those more experienced with lodingi, but is it normal for the shed skin to be so thick? It's my only Pituophis currently 4'+ and keeled scales aside, the shed skins seem to consistantly be quite thick compared to other colubrids I'm used to (Kings, Milks & Rats).

Apparently we've stumped the band Nir
While deliberations continue & while it's technically the other snakes section it is still the VIP lounge... Just wanted to share some excitement from the basement. Just think of them as heavily armoured, legged snakes...Yeah that's it...


Happy to say that after a couple of days of major excavation & soil relocation by our big boned girl, this


Has happily turned into these:







So far so good but a long ways to go yet. Both came in at 1-13/16" and 25g. I knew they would be big but I still have no idea how she pushed those monsters out. They're nicely tucked into the incubator and now for the waiting... no Russian here...

A big Felicitation all the way from Toronto.Cheers "Frenchie the Roughneck"

Congratulations on the tortoise eggs, Chris . That is a real accomplishment.......you're one up on me.......I've never bred or even kept tortoises. I have always liked the smaller species (and the North American Box Turtles) but I've just never made the space for a breeding group. That male in the "breeding portrait" certainly appears to be in fine form . I'd sure like to see photos of the hatchlings when they pop out.

Spankenstyne a écrit:

A query for those more experienced with lodingi, but is it normal for the shed skin to be so thick? It's my only Pituophis currently 4'+ and keeled scales aside, the shed skins seem to consistantly be quite thick compared to other colubrids I'm used to (Kings, Milks & Rats).

I have noticed the same "thickness" here on my P. m. lodingi, Chris. The shed skins from those guys, Spilotes (as Nick mentions), and even the various Drymarchon individuals I have kept here all appear to be tougher/thicker/more "durable" than the more diaphanous Elaphe or Thamnophis sheds. I'll bet that someone could come up with a theory or two on this phenomenon........it might make an interesting project. One thing I do know, though, is that certain Black Pinesnakes have a little problem with so-called "anger management". This adult male, for instance, is one half of the pair who produced your 2008 female (the one that's coming your way as soon as the weather permits!). As I (finally) began the process of awakening the group of brumating colubrids again this year, he expressed his displeasure with things in general.......and me specifically..........



















Regards,
D.

ps - "Angry Pinesnake Magazine"
pps - How can he be a "colour-brid" if he has no "colour"???
ppps -

Mouhahahah CLint Eastwood Damn this guy's scary and so is the snake he looks pissed !!!

Very angry snake there Don,better grab your mittens.lol Cheers "Frenchie" P.S. Whats wrong with this weather ,i need some herping running through my veins before i get cranky.

Thanks for the kind words. Being my first tortoise breeding, I'm very excited.

Don, anger management? I only see smiling faces

Sadly after a couple of nice days I was prepared to head out in the sunshine this morning for some hiking & possibly a few pictures of some early baskers... Unfortunately last night 15 cm of postponed until further noticed interfered...

Great lodingi shots Don. I have a question though. I thought black pines had heavily keeled scales? The one pictures seems to have rather smooth scales. Does this vary with the specimens?

JSI a écrit:

P.S. I second “Angry Pinesnake Magazine”. That would be a publication worth reading, unlike the ever popular “Reptiles”.

"Reptiles" has gotten very lame these past years... There is less and less interesting stuff from number to number. For those who'd be interested in a good publication, I recommend the magazine published by the IGUANA. Great articles on various stuff regarding conservation, trips and captive propagation.

I am in the process of building a nice big cage for my Spilotes. However, with the end of the therm arriving fast, I have less and less time to put on that project. Since my male was starting to be a bit cramped in his current set-up and I am not finishing the new cage for a couple weeks, I decided to upgrade him to a temporary cage. It is a 72 Gal. "Fish" tank. It is 48 x 20 x 18. It gives him a fair amount of room to move.

Anyway, to get to the point... I posted this because I thought it followed the angry lodingi post.

Here is a very angry Spilotes that did not like the change of environment :

Awhhh... Melanistic Thamnophis. What a beautiful beast. Thank you for posting these photos, Mr. Pogue. Sincerely, Jon Davidson .

Hey where did you see those "melan-istical brutes?"I thought i was the only one that knew where to find them ,i guess not.

Great pics, as per usual!

Who can resist those Melanistic garters..lol... ..

Beautifull ''wild'' melanistic mr. Pogue !!

Here, its too cold outside


BTW some ''souvenir'' of the summer 2006 & 2007: (beware: ugly snakes...)

Greetings from sunny Northern California. I'm hoping to start herping over the next few weeks in the hope of getting some photos of some of our native thamnophis, lampropeltis, pituophis, coluber and crotalus.

In the meantime, here are some middling photos of some of my own colubrids:

Melanurus:



Rhamphiophis:



Heterodon:


Suboc:


Flavirufa:


We have been lucky in the past few years to have pituophis catenifer, lampropeltis getula californiae and coluber constrictor mormon make their way into our backyard. I work in Marin County and often get to see some beautiful thamnophis sirtalis infernalis.

Wow great looking snake man , they look awesome I love the Melanarus seems like a pretty strong snake heavy built for a Colubrid

Duff, welcome and nice collection. Any other pictures you have of the Rhamphiophis would be appreciated, don't see them much up here. A friend has Rhamphiophis oxyryhchus but his are the only ones I've seen in person.

I'm jealous of the visitors you get in the yard, hope we'll be seeing some shots of those as well.


LD/50, they may be muddy but *gasp* luckily they only eat on paper towels.. I mean imagine the impactions just waiting to happen if they actually ate in that stuff...
It must be true, my tubs n' towels google gurus can't be wrong...

Very nice D.c.melanurus Duff, I'm a big fan of the Central American Cribos. Some more photos of those would be greatly appreciated by myself and I'm sure a few others.

Jeremy
P.S. Wild snakes are cool
P.S.S. The mental picture of Corky in pumps parading a "Lesser Platinum"...........bad

I agree! Beautiful Cribos!
Welcome aboard! More pictures would be much appreciated

Very nice pics i like the Hognose

Beautiful Black tailed cribo!!

That Cribo is Awsome....Welcome to the forum by the way!!!

Oh yes, we (D.Pogue, Jon Davidson, LD/50, and myself) are all very familiar with the unwarranted moderation of our discussion and opinions.

That's why we like it here; the VIP lounge is the real "Premier Canadian/Californian/World Reptile Forum"

Jeremy

P.S. I found Jon's recent debate on the anonymous contributors to be far more interesting than the topic that was in the original discussion. But as is always the case Jon was told to lay off because too many "anonymous" complaints had been made about him.

First off......A big "Welcome to The Lounge" for newest members "Duff", "Superman81", and "Pro_bug_catcher" ! Thanks to everybody for their valuable additions to the "Revolution" Thread as well. It's just a little tiny corner of one very good site, but we like it here. Thanks especially to anyone who is generous enough to post their own photographs here. We all appreciate everyone's contributions, large or small.

Duff a écrit:

It's interesting that many forums will gladly let people dole out bad advice all day long but will aggressively edit anything deemed confrontational, regardless of how informative the contents of the debate may be.

Well, Duff, you really touched a nerve with that statement. Sadly, far too many people get away with regularly posting blatantly incorrect or misleading "information" all over many reptile forums, and apparently it's considered "bad form" to challenge these "experts"............the excuse from the folks who run some sites usually is, "That's his/her opinion" when in fact "opinion" really has nothing to do with it. So-called "moderators" on these familiar sites can't seem to fathom the idea that confrontation in and of itself is not always necessarily a bad thing. If someone makes a ludicrous statement like, "All crocodilians have tiny brains and they cannot hear a thing!" or publicly endorses the regular prophylactic use of dangerous neurotoxins in reptile husbandry (just a couple of examples from another site), should that be allowed to go unchallenged? In most cases I have seen, the answer I get is a resounding "yes". All apparently in the name of just making "nice" all of the time. I feel that as long as the debate is kept clean, and posters stick to debating and attacking another viewpoint without resorting to profanity, threats, or personal insults, everything should be allowed to stand. As Mr. Davidson has so often said, let the membership decide for themselves who is credible..............and who is not. I find that, given the opportunity, most people who post "information" that is not borne out of direct, first-hand experience are quicky revealed to be the frauds they truly are. Please note that simply using "Google" regularly does not equate with conducting "research"...............As an aside, isn't the word "research" the most devalued, abused word in any language these days? If I could, I would nominate the word "facility" as a close runner-up for the "Most Meaningless Word" Award........... .

Sometimes rules are made to be bent, I think. For instance, JSI posted some tropical lizard photos here a while back, even though the header says "Colubridés et Autres Serpents". Funny, no-one censured (or censored) him for that "confrontational behaviour". In the spirit of general contempt for arbitrary rules, I'd like to post these invertibrate pics and dedicate them to "Pro_bug_catcher" who invoked the name of Persephone earlier. Nothing too exotic here, just a few shots of some common bugs as we await the re-return of Spring 2009 (it's back for good in these parts as of tomorrow, and the Garters will be out in numbers )...............

An Argiope spider.







An unidetified wasp.




There's a "walking stick" in there somewhere.......




An exotic Yucatan caterpillar.




A mantis, found last summer while we were hiking in Sistrurus territory.




That's it for the bugs. I hope that rule-bending wasn't too dangerous or confrontational.

Regards,
D
ps - The cryptic green on that mantis reminds me of a certain cryptically-coloured snake that is sometimes encountered in Québec and Ontario and several other parts of Canada. Up next: "Green Is The Colour".


pps -

To add to your post Mr. Pogue...Couple of last seasons Herping picts!



















P.S: oh ya..a snake!

Some more of our Rhamphiophis:




...and some of the most important woman in my life (next to my wife, daughter and mother):




Sadly my photo skills rarely do my subjects much justice.

Thank you for the dedicated pictures Mr. Pogue. I've never seen a wild phasmids in Canada, I know there are some at the Mount Royal Cemetery but I've never been there... A trip for this summer maybe.
Nice caterpillars... here's a Milkweed Tussock Moth catrepillar (Euchaetes egle) to keep up with the hairy kind :


Here are some of the very few snake pictures I have, a nice little Eastern Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) :








Next time no snake pictures

Wow! Everyone, Great posts and photos! Just like back in the 'old days' in the J&W Thread. Great to see. Sincerely, Jon Davidson .

I hate to keep saying it but I feel rude not mentioning: nice photos people! Well said Jon I 100% agree.
Duff, with the Rhamphiophis how do you find their behaviour? In my short interactions with them I found them very... bird-like would be the best way I can describe. Interesting snakes for sure.

I'll try and convince K & D to start posting, to offer some better first hand experience. I'm sure a little persuasion from a misreable vieille personne would likely be quite effective