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Oregon field herping

A couple of years ago I had the chance to go out to Oregon and do some field herping. Richard Hoyer was kind enough to show me around.  I also took a morning to go visit the attractive coastline. Along the highway, you can see there are a lot of trees but also grassy areas where snakes and lizards can be found.

We found many nice looking garter snakes



Along the roadside gravel where many sharptail snakes




A few attractive fence lizards were found



The most common reptiles we found where alligator lizards and rubber boas, but we did find a few ringneck snakes and gopher snakes, too. It was strange that Oregon was listing the rubber boa at this time as a species of special concern yet it was the most numerous snake species we found and we found them in many different areas, basically anywhere that there was an exposed area for them to bask under objects they could be found.



So there you have it. Oregon may not be a world famous herping destination, but it has enough reptiles to make it a fun place to visit. It was also interesting to spend a few days with Richard as he has been herping for decades, documenting facts about rubber boas, and published a few scientific articles on west coast snake species. 

If you prefer video, check the video version of this post on youtube. If you're interested in learning more about fieldherping, I've included some basic rules to follow here
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