• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

How would you approach this?

TrpnBils

TrpnBils

Jeff Hankey
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I got to a great flipping spot today and realized I had no idea how to go about it... I tried walking across the top of the dam to find any basking snakes I could (which I didn't find), and then flipped for awhile. For the most part, the rocks are huge and usually piled 2-3 deep. There HAVE to be snakes there, but I sure didn't find much besides one northern water snake.

I've been told by several herpers that there are ringneck snakes there too. That's one of the ones I've yet to find for my photography project. I know they should be easy, but they're giving me a run for my money!
 

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start at one edge.
lift one rock.
move/place/toss it up onto the grass.
repeat as needed

Don't forget - before you go home, you have to put them back
 
Bring a comfy chair, and a cooler of cold drinks.
relax and watch
 
Yeah, Harald's right on that one (his second post). There is no way to tackle a "rock pile" like that. Your best bet is to see something sunning on top of the rocks or near the waters edge. Catching it would then be another story. You may be able to flip something on the very outer or inner edge line, but the main part of the pile........good luck.
 
Oh yeah forgot, I don't know what the ringnecks prefer out east, as far as habitat, but my experience here in CA, is they are under rocks, but they are usually in real grassy areas, like pastures with flat rocks to turn.
 
In NC, I've always found ringnecks mainly in leaf litter along stream edges, or under more solitary flat rocks in the same area.
Finding a ringneck in that rock pile would be virtually impossible. That's excellent snake habitat, for the snakes wanting to avoid being caught.

We have a similar area here on the banks of a pond. The bank is steep and covered with rip-rap (decent sized black rock) to prevent erosion.
I do see garter snakes ocasionally in the grass above the rocks, but that's the place they head for when you go to catch them. If they make it to the rocks I just wish them well and go on my way. With rocks piled like that when you do get close to one by flipping they can just move further down the pile without coming out before you even know you're near them.
 
sounds good about the ringnecks. There are a few species that are fairly common but are giving me a hard time like that and I have no idea why.
 
I need to find a new place to go herping.
 
TrpnBils said:
sounds good about the ringnecks. There are a few species that are fairly common but are giving me a hard time like that and I have no idea why.
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Out here they are very gregarious. If I find one, I find five, sometimes under the same rock.
 
That's what I keep hearing... I just got back from a whole afternoon of flipping logs around some wetlands and I didn't find a single snake. I came back with some pics of a spotted salamander, some redback salamanders, two snapping turtles (not from flipping logs obviously :) ) and some far away shots of painted turtles that I couldn't get anywhere near.

I'm gonna try road cruising tonight to try for some milk snakes in the same area.
 
TrpnBils said:
That's what I keep hearing... I just got back from a whole afternoon of flipping logs around some wetlands and I didn't find a single snake. I came back with some pics of a spotted salamander, some redback salamanders, two snapping turtles (not from flipping logs obviously :) ) and some far away shots of painted turtles that I couldn't get anywhere near.

I'm gonna try road cruising tonight to try for some milk snakes in the same area.
Click to expand...
Good luck with the night drive. Post those pics when you get a chance, love to see the Spotted, especially.
 
Well, I'm kicking myself right now. I got plenty of spotted pictures earlier in the year so I didn't bother cleaning him up at all. Now that I sit down and look at the pictures, I wish I had.... Here are the "good" spotted shots from a couple of weeks ago, and I'll post up some others from today as soon as I get them resized.

One of them is a frog. It's either a leopard or pickerel frog, and I suck at telling one from the other, so hopefully somebody here can help me out...lol.

March92006061resize.jpg


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Very nice photos Jeff. You definately have some talent for wildlife photography.
I particularly like the second shot of the spotted and the head on of the snapper. I've always loved snappers.
 
I believe that frog is a leopard frog. The blotches on a Pickerel frog's back are more square shaped and in parallel rows, and the spot in the tympanum is black if it is present at all.
 
Bahamut said:
I believe that frog is a leopard frog. The blotches on a Pickerel frog's back are more square shaped and in parallel rows, and the spot in the tympanum is black if it is present at all.
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I agree with Jeremiah on that; Leopard Frog, for the reasons he brought up. Awesome pics of the spotted, and the others. Thanks for sharing.
 
haha, see? I told you I suck at telling the difference.... That's cool though because I didn't have any pictures of a leopard frog before, so I can cross that off my list. I think I'm up to 23 or 24 of the 41 species of herps here in Erie County.
 
TrpnBils said:
haha, see? I told you I suck at telling the difference.... That's cool though because I didn't have any pictures of a leopard frog before, so I can cross that off my list. I think I'm up to 23 or 24 of the 41 species of herps here in Erie County.
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Not to shabby. I've got like 140 +- for CA. That number is old, don't know what a lot of the recent taxonomy changes have done to that number, as it's hard to keep up lately. Maybe I should just stick with the county and not the state. I need to do a head count, of both the actual life list and those that I have a photo of, and see where I'm at.
 
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