Category: conservation

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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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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Vermont Bumble Bees: webinar offered by Salisbury Conservation Commission

Did you know that Vermont once had 17 species of Bumble Bee and that 4 are now feared extinct? Learn about these important pollinators and how we can help conserve them, at our upcoming free Zoom webinar. The Salisbury Conservation

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Erosion control and herps: please use fiber or blanket, not plastic

Erosion-control matting that contains welded plastic netting is bad news for snakes, which is why we are very thankful that the Vermont Department of Transportation (VTrans) has severely limited use of this product, as have state land managers. That said, the

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In the News: May 2020

A brief round up of this month’s news and mentions of the Atlas: May 18: “F&W: Turtles on the Roadway Need Your Help” from Saint Albans Messenger at https://www.samessenger.com/news/f-w-turtles-on-the-roadway-need-your-help/article_6f8ba722-9906-11ea-a519-13455e108690.html “When you spot a turtle in the road, you may be

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Vernal Pool Video by K. Briggs

Kiley Briggs of the Orianne Society put together an excellent video on vernal pools.  It is roughly 30 minutes long and covers vernal pools, amphibians that use them, egg-mass ID, and a few invertebrates that use vernal pools.  It is

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Amphibian Crossings: Chris Slesar interview

Chris K. Slesar, Environmental Resources Coordinator for the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and frequent contributor to the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, did a Facebook Live interview about on habitat connectivity and herps. It’s watchable at https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=682259185675742. [Facebook videos apparently

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