Californian here... for now.

Hey everyone. My name is Mike Spencer. I'm a herper from Northern California.
I'm 25 and I've been actively herping on my own for more than half my life. I have had hands on experience working with native California crotes for about 10 years now and I make it into the field anywhere from 3 to 7 days a week. I have experience with quite a few rearfangeds as well. (Hydrodynastes, various Boiga ssp. etc.) I am a herp photographer and my biggest interests are Vipers, Elapids, and Colubrids, in that order. I'm not a fan of boids at all. haha

I am hugely and utterly fascinated with venom and venomous snakes and I take all of the time I can to keep learning about them, whether through hands on experience with keepers, working with rescues, or just reading books and papers.

I'm moving to Fort Smith, Arkansas within the next week or two both to help with some family matters and to expand my herping horizons. I'm really looking forward to finally being able to find, photograph, and work with both US Agkistrodon species as well as Crotalus horridus.

Anyhow, I look forward to talking with and learning from anybody that I can and I hope that I have some stuff to teach as well.

Thanks everybody

Welcome to the site, Mr. Spencer. You have an interesting web site. Thank you for providing the link. I like the night photography work of the in situ Crotalus specimens. If you can, please keep us updated with any wild, Arkansas Agkistrodon or horridus that you may encounter. Sincerely, Jon Davidson .

Welcome Mike,

as Mr. Davidson mentioned, great site with nice shots.

rgds

Thanks for the welcome and the compliments.

Jon Davidson wrote:: Welcome to the site, Mr. Spencer. You have an interesting web site. Thank you for providing the link. I like the night photography work of the in situ Crotalus specimens. If you can, please keep us updated with any wild, Arkansas Agkistrodon or horridus that you may encounter. Sincerely, Jon Davidson .

I'm moving out there cameraless, but I should have all new photography equipment by the end of summer. (Everything I had got stolen on a herping trip in March).

I'll make sure to get lots of Agkis and horridus shots up here as soon as I can though.

Good to see you on here mike Smile

Oh Anthony! Whatsup man! I've been lurking here for a while. haha. I just never got around to joining until recently. Mainly due to the fact of where we live and that I can't keep hots... which is about to change for me. haha

Welcome to the venomland forums Very Happy

Thank you, Richard!

Mike Spencer wrote:: Thank you, Richard!

You have a cool website :-)

Richard Mastenbroek wrote:

Mike Spencer wrote:: Thank you, Richard!

You have a cool website :-)

Thanks alot, and thanks for the comment on my site.

To answer your question, the closest to where I live now is Micrurus euryxanthus. The Sonoran coral snake, which is found in Arizona. I herped in range of them for a week this year, but I failed to find one. The only one found was by a friend I was with about an hour before I met up with him.
I had the opportunity to shoot it, but I decided against it because that snake is the US native venomous snake that I have wanted to find more than any other, so I am going to wait until I find my own to take pictures of it.

The state I am moving to next week though, has Micrurus tener tener - the Texas coral snake. They are rare, but I'm going to be making a point to get into their range in either late September (if I don't go to Arizona) or early October.

They're pretty high on my list of targets for the year.