In March of 2025 I took a trip with Will and John. We took an extended weekend to search for snakes around Houston and all the way down to the border. This type of herping was familiar territory for us as it is largely comprised of garbage flipping- a dirty and tedious task we are all too familiar with. Traveling around the outskirts of Houston was a very interesting experience. A stark dichotomy of new high end developments scattered the landscape replacing the much simpler and rural existence that was one present in this area. Fortunately, this meant that there were lots of abandoned areas and “habitat” for us to search for. Snakes aren’t very selective in nature and are just as happy to utilize anthropogenically altered habitat so long as it provides them with them ample opportunity to thermoregulate and forage.
Eastern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)
Speckled kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula holbrooki)
Juvenile buttermilk racer with just a little milk
Texas 2025
Day 1
Flipping tin and other random junk yielded a countless number of copperheads and ribbon snakes. While these were welcome bycatch, we were only to be satisfied by the sight of a milk snake or a king snake.
Much to my surprise, we also turned up two eastern coachwhips. In any other instance where I observed this species, I found them amongst arid upland habitat. The Texas coachwhips seem to be very adaptable!
Western ribbon snake (Thamnophis proximus)
Buttermilk racer (Coluber constrictor)
Eastern coachwhip (Masticophis flagellum)
Buttermilk racer and western rat snake
In the company of Texas herping legend, Kyle, we managed to find an incredible number of snakes. In the final few hours of the day we managed to find some pretty remarkable targets including a very vibrant and stunning speckled kingsnake and spectacular buttermilk racer. Any day of garbage flipping is typically interrupted by a police encounter or a mummy encounter… both boxes checked.
Western rat snake (Pantherophis obsoletus)
Day two was spent driving down towards south Texas. Along the way we ripped some garbage and managed to turn up my first texas coral and a few really neat looking broad-banded copperheads. I was also super excited about the exceptionally colorful western rat snake that we found. We also found a gem in the swamp that night- an axanthic green tree frog. What would otherwise be a typically green tree frog, beared a mutation that eliminated yellow pigment from its phenotype resulting in its conspicuous blue appearance.
Day 2
Broad-banded copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)
Axanthic green tree frog (Hyla cinereus)
Texas coral snake (Micrurus tener)
Day 3
Day 4
The unseasonable and extreme heatwave we experienced proved to be our undoing while hunting down in south Texas. Despite flipping excellent cover, we weren’t nearly as successful has we would’ve hoped to be. We worked tirelessly to try to turn up a milk snake with no success. Thought we set high expectations for ourselves, we still managed to see a number of exciting snakes while down south for that short period of time.
