Year: 2020

Vt Herp News: roadkilled snakes

Herpers, once the warmer temperatures returned after those first frosts, thousands of snakes had warmed up enough to be on the move. If you have not been out yet, this weekend should be good. Prepare yourself though, many of the

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Snakes on the move, a great opportunity

Herpers, these first frosty nights of the fall will motivate snakes to head back to their dens. The first warm sunny afternoon after a frost is one of the easiest times to find snakes. The frosty night is the signal

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Ratsnake eggs and embryo

Folks, Since I was just writing about snakes giving birth and laying eggs last week, I thought I would share with you an exciting find made by Karen Sommerlad and David Cobb of Sunderland. Just last week they were moving

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Common Gartersnake giving birth

Folks, Kate Kelly forwarded this link to a very cool video of a Common Gartersnake giving birth. You can see a couple other recently born snakes moving around while the star of the show is trying to break free of

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Successful Herp Survey in the Northeast Kingdom

Herpers, this past Friday Matt Gorton, Kate Kelly, and I made a hike into Warners Grant near the Canadian border to locate and photograph reptiles and amphibians. Warners Grant has long been the least surveyed area of Vermont as far

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Herp Updates and a request

Herpers, I am just starting to get reports of baby Snapping Turtles emerging from nests. Taking a quick look at HerpAtlas records, they are right on schedule with most records of emerging snappers in Vermont occurring between August 28 and

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Atlas Update

Fundraising I have left our GoFundMe fundraiser site up and running for the last six months. That seems about as long as I can stretch it for what we called an annual fundraiser. One of the reasons I have kept

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More on the Rough-skinned Newt and the American Bullfrog and other herp news

Folks, that last video of the American Bullfrog and Rough-skinned Newt was taken out west, not in Vermont. Some further details from Kiley Briggs: “in addition to the Rough-skinned Newt being highly toxic, American Bullfrogs are an invasive species out

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Newt and American Bullfrog

Herpers, Kiley Briggs forwarded this.  It is not our newt.  It looks like a Rough-skinned Newt from out west.  They are more toxic than our Eastern Newts. Matt Gorton and I were doing some herp survey in Fairfax yesterday.  We

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Herp Update

Herpers, as we move into August I have been receiving lots of reports of recently metamorphosed American Toads.  Young American Toads are tiny.  They could fit on top of a dime.  If you look closely at them, you can see

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