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2006 Spring Field TripReports
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Unofficial Report, by Brad BirchfieldWAIVER just so no one gets their feelings hurt, this is my 'off the top of my head version' of the weekend's events. In no way am I implying that this is the 'set in stone, mark IV production' way it happened. I do this because its theraputic, you know, helps me exorcise all this out of my system so I'll be ready for the fall trip... Enjoy- “Its gonna rain on us all weekend, you know that” I said to Jeremy as we were loading the truck to head south. “yeah, but I got a good feeling about this weekend, we’ll find something” he replied. “Yeah, good enough for me, lets hit it.” After the weekend we spent searching for Rich and Fourche mountain salamanders in March, where we endured a 38 degree, raining horizontally, 40 mph wind induced maelstrom of weather at Queen Wilhelmena State Park, I figured we could take whatever south Arkansas could throw at us. So after a couple filet-o-fish from the clown place, we were on our way by 11 am on Friday. Kory had called the day before to advise us of his plans to hit a good rattlesnake habitat spot near Y city, but since it had been cloudy most of the morning, I didn’t figure the did any good (which turned out to be right, although they did collect some GOD AWFUL creature from hell, Scolopendra heros, commonly called ‘the giant centipede’) but we were jealous all the same. About 30 minutes into the trip, I realized I’d forgotten to bring a pillow, so when we arrived at the Mena Wal-Mart, we pulled in to right that. Apparently the folks in Mena wait till Friday to do their Wal-Mart shopping, because the place looked like it does on Christmas Eve. After scouring the lot for a spot to park that wasn’t in the next county…I remembered my buddy Dan, who is in a wheelchair, had left his handicap placard in my glove box. So, I advised Jeremy to hang that bad boy on the mirror and either limp or act like he has some issue as we walk the now-so-short distance to the door. (and for those of you fretting, there were only about 700 handicap spots at the front of the store, what is up with that anyway? I’ll save that rant for another time). Have you shopped for pillows lately? They ain’t cheap. I had just about resigned to getting a $12 superman pillow when I noticed a bin of pillows geared towards your 10 year old girl demographic where I spied a big ‘ol sign that said “pillows $5.88”! SOLD. Although it is black velour, it did the job. It began to rain heavier and heavier the further south we went, so we both started to get this sickly feeling in our collective bellies after so much anticipation of the spring field trip. Oddly enough though, when we crossed interstate 30 at Prescott, the sun came out and the rain was gone! We were back to being giddy as 2 school girls. Now I’d heard of Logoly State Park. I used to work at Lake Fort Smith State Park during the summer, and I’d looked at the brochure for the park many times, but I’d never been there. Or anywhere near it for that matter. Turns out, it is hidden away in a heavily wooded area just outside McNeil, Arkansas. When we pulled up at about 15:00, we saw the familiar faces of tribe Chapman, the Irwins, Kory and a few others. I told Jeremy we’d better prioritize getting up our tents and a shelter instead of socializing right off, so in a fury of construction we had our tents up and were working on a pavilion to get under in case it started raining. This is where Mr. Murphy showed up. In my haste, I had gotten all the parts to build the pavilion/shelter, but I had neglected to get the tarp that covered it or the instructions. So, with the help of Glenn, Kory, Jeremy, Devin and some duct tape, we erected the skeleton of a shelter. Luckily, I had bought a new tarp that fit the skeleton, so with a little more industrious thinking, we had a nice ‘big top’ tent to get under in the case of rain. While Torry spooned out some scrumptious pulled pork onto buns for our supper, we gathered around Jim Gann, Superintendent of the park. He circled some spots on the map that we ought to check and we were off into the woods with our implements of destruction. The first spot turned out to be our most productive moment of the trip for finding reptiles and amphibians. Magnesia spring is a spring that has a ‘swimming pool’ like structure built around it. Basically, a big concrete rectangle below ground level. It was full of leaves and moisture, so after stirring it around, the group (I apologize on giving credit on the specimens, as I was merrily ripping up rotting logs in hopes of finding a coral snake) turned up a unique looking Dusky Salamander, a Dwarf Salamander, a (yellow bellied) Red Belly Snake, a cottonmouth and an Earth Snake. Little did we know, that would be the ‘high water’ mark for herp finding for the weekend. Friday night around the campfire (and under a magnificent shelter) we had been joined by some others, Zach and Michelle from Texarkana, as well as Ed Black and Ben (Jim’s son who knew Kory from Ecology camp). Although the conversation was pretty juicy at times, for the most part (and very uncharacteristically) the group was pretty subdued. One highlight was Erica aka ‘toadlicker’ had brought her latest mouth to feed with her…an orphaned baby opossum about 6 weeks old. I detest all rodents, and this thing did look like an ugly rat, but I must admit when it gripped its bottle with both hands it was almost cute. Then I suppose the most macabre imagery was when told us Cyndi told us she had her cats shaved. That’s right…she had her cats hair shaved off…apparently someone doesn’t like shedding cats. I wonder how the kitties feel about this? The next day we were privy to some digital pictures of the cats, and I must say, a kitty looks WEIRD without any hair. To each his own… Saturday morning we awoke to a steady downpour of rain. We decided to make the park’s permanent pavilion our breakfast spot as our magnificent shelter we had erected had collapsed in the rain! Glenn, Kory and myself took turns holding an umbrella over the bbq grill as we tried to start a fire for cooking breakfast. Although it took some creative using of Jeremy’s handheld electric pump, we soon had a good fire to cook on and Torry whipped up some outstanding scrambled eggs, sausage links and toast. The size of the group seemed to grow, and like Jesus’ feeding the five thousand, Torry’s eggs and sausage managed to feed the entire group, how I am not really sure. By the way, I saw Jeremy eating seconds, in case anyone cares. About 11 am, the rain had started to slack off to an acceptable level, so Jim came down and took us to some great spots on private property. The first one was surreal when we pulled up to it. There was a group of about 5 buildings that looked like they were out of a hollywood movie about the 1940’s or something. Lots of antique stuff adorned the walls and there was stuff laying all around. Apparently the landowner had hopes of opening a tourist attraction, but it had never materialized and all that was left was the buildings. One building, according to our host, was an actual café that was moved in intact. We got to view the interior of that one, and it was pretty neat, it just oozed with history, no telling what had transpired between those walls back in the day. But I digress, we didn’t come to look at antiques. Around this area there were some good tin/board piles and we descended on them like a plague of locusts. But surprisingly, we didn’t find any herps. The group spread out and continued, I accompanied Zack, Jim, Ben, Kory and Cyndi to a large pond that sure looked ‘snaky’ but alas, we turned up nothing. The next spot was some similar farmland, but it too contained minimal animal activity. Cyndi and I spotted a five-lined skink, but it evaded capture. As we gathered to leave, Jim told us there were some sundew plants right across the fence. So, like a 6th grade field trip, we all followed him down along the fence row bordering the road. We never found the plant, but I noticed a nice rough Green snake basking under some ferns and grabbed it up for inspection. Turned out to be gravid, so we let her on her way after some pictures. At this point I noticed there had been more herpers join our group.(sorry, I have no idea when they joined us!) They included Ian, Daniel and Kelly. (we’ll refer to her as ‘new Kelly’ from here on out). By this time, it was near lunch, so we all caravanned back to the park. While waiting for a decision on lunch, Zach milked a cottonmouth to the amazement of those around. It never ceases to amaze me, how this mixture of proteins and enzymes are put together in a fashion that can be so deadly. I needed gas for the truck, so Jeremy, Erica, Cyndi and myself went into Magnolia for gas and a hot meal . I wont go into details, but there was somewhat of a coup de etat on lunch in my truck. I guess it turned out ok, as I had a great sliced pork samich with some coleslaw and beans. As I feared, when we returned, the group had split up into various incarnations checking out different spots. While planning our next spot, we ran into “Frogman” as he is known on the website, and his son. Time didn’t allow them to take part in the weekend field trip, but he did make an effort to stop by and say ‘hello’. I am sure we’ll see him again. Next, the ‘truck group’ decided to hit the railroad tracks back on the McNeil side of the park. We found a couple of skinks that I mis-identified as broadheads(turned out to be five lined), but not much else. Once, whilst I was concentrating on walking on the railroad ties without tripping, I heard the unmistakable sound of a Erica’s boot kicking a ball. “That’s funny?” I thought to myself. Then as the synapses in my brain fired as I thought about kicking a ball, I felt the unmistakable pain of a heavy, water laden basketball hitting me square between the shoulders. How appropriate that I was on a train track when this happened because it felt like a train hitting me. How I managed to stay on my feet still escapes me. So after some good natured laughing (and me coughing up part of my liver), I continued my walk with my back to Erica. Then I heard the sound again. This time, I turned and dropped my head enough to read “MADE IN INDONESIA” as the ball screamed past my head. Thankfully, this time it landed up in the brush and kept “E” from trying it again. Back at camp, we ran into Kory, Ben, and Ed who had been on a different section of the tracks. They found a plainbelly (or yellowbelly) watersnake and a coal skink. As Glenn and Devin approached, they carried a bag with a slightly larger cottonmouth than the one captured earlier. There was also word that Kelly and Lisa had found a good sized coachwhip on the railroad tracks too, but I never personally saw it. After a short rest period, most of the group decided to see what lake Columbia could offer, herpwise. So back into the vehicles we piled and headed east. One thing to note on the journey to the lake…somewhere near downtown Waldo, I managed to run over a plastic feed sack in the middle of the road. When I did, some how, it wrapped around my back axle. Perfectly. The initial sound was that of a loud explosion. It seemed to catch the eyes and ears of the many locals out on a Saturday evening. There were several, trust me. Then, it started flapping…at the speed I was driving, it sounded not unlike the sound of an AK-47, the standard machine gun for most terrorists/gang thugs. So, imagine if you will, the look on the locals face’s as we’re driving through and you hear a barrage of RAT TAT TAT TAT TAT coming from my truck as us four “crackers” were dying laughing (after I got over the initial knee jerk response of diving down into the seat and telling jeremy to drive). Regardless, it provided some heartly lafter in the cab of the ‘ol silver bullet. The first spot we came to there was a large pond on one side of the road that looked like great gator habitat. Kory, Zack, Jeremy and myself all donned our waders and stepped into the stinky swamp. Now for some dumb reason, I keep bringing my hip waders on these excursions instead of my chest waders. And again, I learned a hard lesson as I sunk up to my waist in some dark, skanky water. Not pleasant. Although the water was not that cold. As soon as I righted myself on the wading, it started pouring HUGE rain drops. The shower didn’t last long, but it was HEAVY. That stop netted (literally) a stinkpot turtle and a green anole, and for me, some wet pants. The next stop was a spillway below the dam. We spotted some turtles sunning on a concrete dike, and I think Devin almost noodled a huge carp, but no one turned up anything there. Important to note though, I understand why they are called fire ants now. I followed Jeremy up a hill and apparently he had angered said fire ants. Since my dip in the pond, I had removed my socks and rolled up my pants. The fire ants found the door open and proceed to invade my footwear. So after some slapping and scratching, I managed destroy the offending insects. They are truly the scourge of nature. Kill them all! Now at this point we’re all tired, hungry, wet/dry/wet again. We stop off at one more spot where we see some nutria, doing what nutria do out on a log in a swamp. Ed Black had to head back home after this stop so we reluctantly take a group picture on a levee and head back towards camp. Now it seems like that someone saw one of those large, albino things that were recorded in Benton county at this point, but I cant say, I didn’t see IT for myself. But I think some of the group did. I will let them tell that story if they wish. Back at camp, we enjoyed another fine supper compliments of Torry, consisting of bbq chicken, mac-n-cheese, and baked beans. It really hit the spot after a long day with few herps. That night around the campfire we enjoyed some quality conversation as well as copious amounts of barley and hopps. Now the last couple of outings, Toadlicker as she is affectionately known, has been one of the first to retire on Saturday night. At Kory’s last month, she went to ‘rest her eyes’ about 9 pm and was never heard from again. Because of this, she has had to endure much ribbing from the rest of us. Well, for some reason, not sure if the moon was just right or what, but Erica went on a mission to become the queen of the forrest Saturday night. From what I understand, she finally went beddy-bye around 04:00. I think Zach and Michelle were afraid to leave her unattended. Jim and Ben joined us early on for stories of herping, revelry, and ‘the one that got away.’, but finally at 01:00, I found the zipper to my tent and retired for the night. The next morning Kory took photos of a few specimens, one of which was the coachwhip I had brought with me from home. We were going to take pictures of the smallmouth salamander I had brought along, but somehow this little amphibian Houdini managed to escape his cage. Has anyone found a dried up piece of beef jerky with 4 legs and 2 eyes in their vehicle? Cannot understand how he made the escape. Oh well, at least it wasn’t that centipede. After a group picture, some of us broke camp early (Jeremy, myself, Kory and Devin) to accompany Kelly and Lisa Irwin and a PHD student named Don up on the eastern edge of the Fourche Mountain salamander range. We met up with them at about 12:00 and made a mad dash up the side of this mountain. We flipped for a solid hour and turned up a slimy salamander and a red belly snake, neither of which had any particular significance. Then Kory and Devin continued with the Game & Fish contingent while Jeremy and I checked out that good piece of rattlesnake habitat near Y city, but again, we came up with ZERO herps. Oh well. It was a beautiful day and nice to be out flipping. With that, we headed back home with good memories and anticipation of the fall trip. Thanks to all who were there, and those that were there in spirit. See you in October! |
