We meet for lunch at a local spot that we found in college. Pam's Farmhouse is one of those great places we take advantages of when we get together. For our company, this is an awesome treat - down home country cookin' at its best. After loading up on heavy sides and sweet tea, we set out east bound, 3.5 hours to our coastal destination.
Only in a small area in coastal North Carolina do Carolina pigmy rattlesnakes (Sistrurus miliarius miliarius) exhibit a deep red coloration throughout their body, replacing the standard dark grey background and rusty stripes between blotches. In Georgia they come close, exhibiting a pinkish-red hue, but what I've seen from North Carolina reminds me of the paint used by local fire districts to adorn their emergency vehicles.
After a long evening in the loaded down SUV we roll into the area we've been anxiously awaiting - endless cotton fields, thick pocosins, and blackwater canals paralleling the roadside. The clouds are rolling in for what the weather forecast calls a overcast evening with a 30 chance of rain. We decide to begin immediately traversing the back country roads in hopes of coming across our species of interest and anything else we can find along the way. It seems it isn't no time that the brakes are locking up and we're stopping to inspect something along the roadside. There it lays, dead - an adult red pigmy that met its demise exiting a well maintained front yard and attempting to cross into an overgrown field. All of us call out in disgust, seeing how we may have missed this animal only by an hour or so. GPS coordinates noted, we roll on in search of more, hoping we get to it before the tires of an unaware driver does.
As we get further into our road transects, the weather doesn't look promising. Our plans of setting up camp that evening are starting to dwindle as light rain begins to fall and nigh fall is fast approaching. After some discussion, we decide to travel back north and find vacancy in one of the two local motels in the area. We find space available to accommodate the four of us, dragging loads of snacks and camera equipment out of the SUV and getting settled. Conveniently, there is a seafood and steakhouse beside our hotel, so sampling the local fodder to waste away the evening hours is a must. After bellies full of scallops and flounder, four sleepy herpers call it a night and wait out the rainfall.
The next morning we roll early, hoping to catch a glimpse of a warm sun rising in at least partly cloudy skies. As the alarm goes off and one of us rolls out to check the conditions, we find that the cloud bank is still with us, and the snooze button gets put to good use. When we finally roll out of bed, we wonder outside and find that our overnight abode is actually a herper's delight. A metamorphed squirrel treefrog awaits us beside our door, posing for a few quick photos. A narrowmouth toad has setup shop by the edge of the covered walkway while a southern toad is nestled in behind a brick adjacent to the motel's Coca-Cola machine. We all new then it was going to be a great day.
Only in a small area in coastal North Carolina do Carolina pigmy rattlesnakes (Sistrurus miliarius miliarius) exhibit a deep red coloration throughout their body, replacing the standard dark grey background and rusty stripes between blotches. In Georgia they come close, exhibiting a pinkish-red hue, but what I've seen from North Carolina reminds me of the paint used by local fire districts to adorn their emergency vehicles.
After a long evening in the loaded down SUV we roll into the area we've been anxiously awaiting - endless cotton fields, thick pocosins, and blackwater canals paralleling the roadside. The clouds are rolling in for what the weather forecast calls a overcast evening with a 30 chance of rain. We decide to begin immediately traversing the back country roads in hopes of coming across our species of interest and anything else we can find along the way. It seems it isn't no time that the brakes are locking up and we're stopping to inspect something along the roadside. There it lays, dead - an adult red pigmy that met its demise exiting a well maintained front yard and attempting to cross into an overgrown field. All of us call out in disgust, seeing how we may have missed this animal only by an hour or so. GPS coordinates noted, we roll on in search of more, hoping we get to it before the tires of an unaware driver does.
As we get further into our road transects, the weather doesn't look promising. Our plans of setting up camp that evening are starting to dwindle as light rain begins to fall and nigh fall is fast approaching. After some discussion, we decide to travel back north and find vacancy in one of the two local motels in the area. We find space available to accommodate the four of us, dragging loads of snacks and camera equipment out of the SUV and getting settled. Conveniently, there is a seafood and steakhouse beside our hotel, so sampling the local fodder to waste away the evening hours is a must. After bellies full of scallops and flounder, four sleepy herpers call it a night and wait out the rainfall.
The next morning we roll early, hoping to catch a glimpse of a warm sun rising in at least partly cloudy skies. As the alarm goes off and one of us rolls out to check the conditions, we find that the cloud bank is still with us, and the snooze button gets put to good use. When we finally roll out of bed, we wonder outside and find that our overnight abode is actually a herper's delight. A metamorphed squirrel treefrog awaits us beside our door, posing for a few quick photos. A narrowmouth toad has setup shop by the edge of the covered walkway while a southern toad is nestled in behind a brick adjacent to the motel's Coca-Cola machine. We all new then it was going to be a great day.
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