My youtuber friend flew in from Utah late Friday night, and we kicked off the trip with 1 day in Louisiana at a couple favorite spots before heading to Florida today. It’s a little earlier in the year than I’d like, but he plans it around his spring break.
Still managed to snag a few snakes on a cool, rainy day in La. to jumpstart the trip though. I’ll update at the end of the trip, but here’s a little teaser from day 1….

9 snakes, 6 species on a less than ideal day. My co-conspirator is jumping ship in Orlando on Friday, but I’m continuing on down to the ‘Glades alone for a few extra days afterwards.

ETA:
First day hunting Florida. Going for quality over quantity - not going to find 127 snakes like last year. We’re mostly targeting the stuff we missed last year.

First thing we cruised up in Apalachicola was, appropriately, a gorgeous little Florida Cottonmouth.

After 70 miles of back-road cruising and searching, we were pumped to finally get one of our major targets basking on a roadside log - a Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake.

My youtuber friend trying his best to get bitten in the face by a rattlesnake…

On to St. Mark’s, where we were lucky to find a Red-bellied snake.

Arrived in Gainesville tonight. Started out in Folsom, La. but logged 1,000 miles so far.

Day 2 in Florida:

No luck on the snakes today - conditions were pretty poor. Plenty gators seen, including 7 babies…and this chonky beast…

Dat’s a tree-shakuh right dere.

Day 3 turned out to be a career day for me - got 2 of the biggest targets I’ve literally dreamed about catching my entire life.
After walking over 2 hours through pine savannah with only a brief glimpse of a fleeing black racer, I happened across this little guy…

All my life I’ve wanted to catch a tri-color - a milk, scarlet, or scarlet king. And of those, I find the scarlet kingsnake to be the prettiest because of the yellows (whereas La. milks and scarlets tend to be red/black/white). Dream come true when I caught a glimpse of this thing out the corner of my eye.

Still riding the high of that catch, we hit another spot. After walking a couple hours thru sandy prairie, I was headed back to the car and almost stepped on this…

Southern hognose.

Hognoses have been one of my favorites since childhood, but they’ve evaded me for 50+ years. Total disbelief when I realized what it was. Even better, the second I picked it up it started playing dead.

It was just surreal to find both of these just hours apart. Best fricking day ever!

Day 4 was stellar as well - quality over quantity. Probably 10 hours searching our coachwhip spot over the past couple days, and we finally got one (the youngster found it and ran it down). It’s my first time seeing one in person, and it’s just an impressive, gorgeous snake. Approximately 6 ft. long!

Day 5 - final day for my compadre. He flew back to Utah while I continued on to the Everglades. But first, in the morning we hit the coral spot hard again, but only saw a couple black racers.

On the way to our next spot we detoured for a quick 10 minute check of another spot and got a Pine Woods Littersnake.

Made one last stop and picked up another little guy - a beautiful Southern ring-necked snake. Prettiest ring-neck I’ve ever seen.

Ethan really is the fossorial-whisperer. He truly has a knack for putting in the work to flip these small, reclusive snakes.

I made my way solo down to the Everglades pretty late but couldn’t resist a quick look at my favorite spot. No snakes were up past midnight but the gators were out in force.

Day 6 - my first full solo day down in South Florida. I hit a spot in Big Cypress (right around the northern edge of the Everglades). Hit it hard, during daylight hours and into the night. ZERO snakes. It was baffling - at the same spot last year around the same time of year, we got 23 snakes in 2 days. Did get to play with the gators (gave one big one a little tail slap), saw a couple groups of baby gators, and saw a couple giant softshell turtles.

Final day, I hit Everglades National Park first to see the American crocodiles and manatees. Had an Everglades racer cross my path when I made a restroom stop, but he was on the move - couldn’t get a good pic.

Here’s a better pic of one we got last year:

Pulled up to the crocodile spot and got to see a crocodile or two:

…and just happened to get there minutes after a guy was attacked by the big croc and airlifted out (as I documented in the other thread).

Headedout and finished off the trip by doing some road cruising. Got a beautiful Eastern garter snake in the first few minutes…

Then just a few minutes later hit another major score!

Scarlet snake! First of my life (not to be confused with my lifer scarlet kingsnake), and my main target in the Everglades (aside from a python, but it’s still a bit early for those).

Next, cruised up a Florida cottonmouth and found another just a few feet away when I went to check him out.

Next, found another garter then a banded water snake.

Was about to call it a night (& a trip), then decided to make one more pass and BOOM! Another scarlet - my 3rd tri-color of the trip!!!

Not nearly the 127 snakes we found last year, but the quality was just mind boggling. I caught things I’ve dreamed about (literally) since childhood.

6 species on our 1 day in La., 14 species in Fla.

This post was edited on 3/13/24 at 10:05 am