Houston, TX

So I had to go to Houston, TX for a weekend for work. I was able to steal away for a few hours one morning to check out the herp scene in the 4th largest city in America. It turned out to be pretty cool, as far as herping goes, but man, Texas does not seem like a place I would ever want to live.

The first herp of the day was a common River Cooter.

I spotted him crossing a shallow area of a drainage ditch.

There were LOADS of turtles, and I even saw my favorite animal of all time, the humble Common Snapping Turtle. If the creek's edge wasn't a six foot drop I probably would have went in and grabbed this big snapper up, the carapace was about 18"s, which means this was likely an adult female. It's tough to see in the photo, but she's there.

The first snake of the day was this tiny, fast and nearly impossible to photograph Rough Earth Snake.

In a styrofoam cup for scale. This is definitely one of the smallest snakes I have ever found.

It's really cool to find species you've never seen before.

Snake number two was a common Ribbon Snake, closely related to garter snakes.

Another snake that is not easy to shoot.

I like those big lip scales.

More basking turtles.

Snake number three was a juvi Broad Banded Water Snake. I saw the snake on the shore and it quickly dove into a hole in some submerged concrete tiles, which made it easy to snatch.

Typical water snake behavior.

I love the vivid colors on young animals.

Cool butterfly action.

All of this going on just a couple miles north of Houston airport.

The Monarch.

Another slider.

Natural underwater camo.

Red-eared Slider on the left, River Cooter on the right.

Cricket Frog.

Southern Leopard Frog

Bronze Frog.

Really cool, never seen one of these guys before either.

I miss turtles. :(

I will say this though, the food in Houston was outstanding.

Ahi.

Good sushi.

This place was amazing, called Chirascos. Meat, meat and more meat.

Texas is a bit on the warm side. I'm guessing this is a bullfrog but I really don't know.

LOL