Jefferson
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2012
- Messages
- 194
- Reaction score
- 33
- Points
- 28
- Location
- Southwest Missouri
- Country
- United States
I am known for my verbose herping stories. This one will be considerably shorter than my normal trip reports, for the simple reason that the trip itself was considerably shorter than my normal interstate jaunts.
You can view the YouTube companion video to this post here:
This past weekend, I got the wild hair to try my hand in South Texas for salamanders (with rain moving in and the possibility of shining some, which did not materialize) and snakes, not least because there was a cheap flight from Springfield, MO to Harlingen, TX (How does Harlingen have an airport???) that Friday night, meaning I could take exactly zero time off work, only be gone from home one night, and take a shot at several things.
The flights down were uneventful, but very evocative of the cultural change. The flight from the Ozarks to Houston, I sat next to a retired Utah elementary school principal who knew Finnish, Russian, and had just visited Branson. He made faces with a four-year old girl on the plane when we landed, which was adorable (it was easy to see he was still an elementary school teacher and principal at heart even retired). The plane to Harlingen was tiny, practically the size of a flying grasshopper, and I was one of two gringos on the 40ish-person flight. Exiting Texas, entering Tejas!
After a beautiful flight over the Gulf just before sunset, on the ground in Harlingen, the smell of mesquite and dry west winds immediately greeted me at the rental car pickup counter, and I started out toward my first shining spot for Cat-eyed snakes.
On the way, I turned on 102.1 “Super Tejano,” which is one of my favorite US radio stations. It is a mix of mariachi music, Mexican-souding folk, Spanish-language covers of American country, jazz, and blues, and occasionally a George Strait song. The host mixes Spanish and English within the same sentences, seamlessly, as if they are the same language. If in South Texas, Tejano music really sets the mood, and it probably helps my impression of this style that I saw a Mexican Milksnake in 2023 while listening to that station.
On the way to the shining spot, I saw a few small (for Texas!) WDB but didn’t stop to take pictures and instead went straight to my shining spot, where I had fun but found only a few Mediterranean House Geckos.
The rest of the night, I put in another hour and a half headed toward a siren shining spot, and saw two of the biggest rattlesnakes I have ever seen. The first was so huge it didn’t even register it was a snake (I thought “someone left a carpet in the road”) until I swerved around it, and the second, sadly, was freshly hit, still squirming, but on his way out.
After a brief stop at McDonald’s, where some sort of annoying bird was calling from every tree even at 12:30am, I headed to my Airbnb, showered, and got some much-needed sleep, while the A/C drowned out the din of the bugs and birds outside.
The next morning, I went to a well-known birding spot along the Rio Grande where people often see Indigo Snakes and racers. I figured that, since it was already April, my odds of
finding an Indigo were nearly zero and this was mostly just a way to get a 5-6 mile walk in and see some interesting birds while pretending I was herping. What I did not anticipate was the intensity of the mosquitoes at this spot, which were absolutely ubiquitous. Nonstop whirring, buzzing, biting, swatting, swearing under my breath. I joked in my YT post that the chachalacas (the large, chicken-like birds in the southernmost tip of Texas that sound like hideous laughter) were “laughing at all the herpers that forgot their BUG SPRAY.”
After four miles, I had seen a small Rio Grande Leopard frog, a few very large wild turkeys, and more chachalacas than you can shake a stick at. But just as I thought I was headed back to my car near the visitor center, in the last half mile of pavement, I saw a massive, dark shape at the left of the trail, in the short grass between the trail and mesquite brush about 30 yards in front of me. It was a huge 6+ foot Indigo Snake!! It was a magnificent beast in the morning sun, and I admired it for a few moments before I grabbed for my camera lens to remove it, and the snake, seeing the movement, turned toward the woods. I got two or three pictures before it disappeared completely into the brush, but its head was gone for the earliest picture and the 30 yards’ distance made the best shot a hair blurry. No matter—it was a wonderful experience I will never forget.
After hiking another 2 miles or so in hopes of seeing another one and to let the moment and my gratitude for what I had just seen sink in, I finally ditched the mosquitoes, got some quick video of the border wall, and headed toward a local birding park to try for some turtles. There was a kids’ Easter Egg hunt in progress, which made my progress halting and which dictated that I let the families look for birds and turtles from the viewpoints first. After all, it is first and foremost a park for those seeking to learn about nature and discover it.
For the first 20 minutes, it was entirely cloudy, and despite the 80-degree temps, I saw no turtles. But the sun poked out just before 11am and the Red-eared Sliders came out first, and then my quarry, the Texas Spiny softshells that are unique to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in the US.
With my second lifer in the books and a flight in five hours, it was time for Mexican food. I picked the one with the least proximity to a major interstate and the least Google reviews in English, and ended up inadvertently crashing someone’s quinceanera or birthday party or something, but the restaurant rolled with it, and it was good stuff. A little more 102.1 Super Tejano, and it was back to the airport, and home to Missouri, where it was a brisk 55 degrees and windy. A nice little 24-hour rocket run to South Texas, and a wonderful Indigo Snake!
Next time you are in the LRGV and really want a good snake, turn on 102.1FM….
You can view the YouTube companion video to this post here:
This past weekend, I got the wild hair to try my hand in South Texas for salamanders (with rain moving in and the possibility of shining some, which did not materialize) and snakes, not least because there was a cheap flight from Springfield, MO to Harlingen, TX (How does Harlingen have an airport???) that Friday night, meaning I could take exactly zero time off work, only be gone from home one night, and take a shot at several things.
The flights down were uneventful, but very evocative of the cultural change. The flight from the Ozarks to Houston, I sat next to a retired Utah elementary school principal who knew Finnish, Russian, and had just visited Branson. He made faces with a four-year old girl on the plane when we landed, which was adorable (it was easy to see he was still an elementary school teacher and principal at heart even retired). The plane to Harlingen was tiny, practically the size of a flying grasshopper, and I was one of two gringos on the 40ish-person flight. Exiting Texas, entering Tejas!
After a beautiful flight over the Gulf just before sunset, on the ground in Harlingen, the smell of mesquite and dry west winds immediately greeted me at the rental car pickup counter, and I started out toward my first shining spot for Cat-eyed snakes.
On the way, I turned on 102.1 “Super Tejano,” which is one of my favorite US radio stations. It is a mix of mariachi music, Mexican-souding folk, Spanish-language covers of American country, jazz, and blues, and occasionally a George Strait song. The host mixes Spanish and English within the same sentences, seamlessly, as if they are the same language. If in South Texas, Tejano music really sets the mood, and it probably helps my impression of this style that I saw a Mexican Milksnake in 2023 while listening to that station.
On the way to the shining spot, I saw a few small (for Texas!) WDB but didn’t stop to take pictures and instead went straight to my shining spot, where I had fun but found only a few Mediterranean House Geckos.
The rest of the night, I put in another hour and a half headed toward a siren shining spot, and saw two of the biggest rattlesnakes I have ever seen. The first was so huge it didn’t even register it was a snake (I thought “someone left a carpet in the road”) until I swerved around it, and the second, sadly, was freshly hit, still squirming, but on his way out.
After a brief stop at McDonald’s, where some sort of annoying bird was calling from every tree even at 12:30am, I headed to my Airbnb, showered, and got some much-needed sleep, while the A/C drowned out the din of the bugs and birds outside.
The next morning, I went to a well-known birding spot along the Rio Grande where people often see Indigo Snakes and racers. I figured that, since it was already April, my odds of
finding an Indigo were nearly zero and this was mostly just a way to get a 5-6 mile walk in and see some interesting birds while pretending I was herping. What I did not anticipate was the intensity of the mosquitoes at this spot, which were absolutely ubiquitous. Nonstop whirring, buzzing, biting, swatting, swearing under my breath. I joked in my YT post that the chachalacas (the large, chicken-like birds in the southernmost tip of Texas that sound like hideous laughter) were “laughing at all the herpers that forgot their BUG SPRAY.”
After four miles, I had seen a small Rio Grande Leopard frog, a few very large wild turkeys, and more chachalacas than you can shake a stick at. But just as I thought I was headed back to my car near the visitor center, in the last half mile of pavement, I saw a massive, dark shape at the left of the trail, in the short grass between the trail and mesquite brush about 30 yards in front of me. It was a huge 6+ foot Indigo Snake!! It was a magnificent beast in the morning sun, and I admired it for a few moments before I grabbed for my camera lens to remove it, and the snake, seeing the movement, turned toward the woods. I got two or three pictures before it disappeared completely into the brush, but its head was gone for the earliest picture and the 30 yards’ distance made the best shot a hair blurry. No matter—it was a wonderful experience I will never forget.
After hiking another 2 miles or so in hopes of seeing another one and to let the moment and my gratitude for what I had just seen sink in, I finally ditched the mosquitoes, got some quick video of the border wall, and headed toward a local birding park to try for some turtles. There was a kids’ Easter Egg hunt in progress, which made my progress halting and which dictated that I let the families look for birds and turtles from the viewpoints first. After all, it is first and foremost a park for those seeking to learn about nature and discover it.
For the first 20 minutes, it was entirely cloudy, and despite the 80-degree temps, I saw no turtles. But the sun poked out just before 11am and the Red-eared Sliders came out first, and then my quarry, the Texas Spiny softshells that are unique to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in the US.
With my second lifer in the books and a flight in five hours, it was time for Mexican food. I picked the one with the least proximity to a major interstate and the least Google reviews in English, and ended up inadvertently crashing someone’s quinceanera or birthday party or something, but the restaurant rolled with it, and it was good stuff. A little more 102.1 Super Tejano, and it was back to the airport, and home to Missouri, where it was a brisk 55 degrees and windy. A nice little 24-hour rocket run to South Texas, and a wonderful Indigo Snake!
Next time you are in the LRGV and really want a good snake, turn on 102.1FM….
