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Being one of the greatest reptile and amphibian diversity hotspots in the United States, California offers a wide range of treasures for the field herpetologist to find. One of the most iconic members of the California herpetofauna is the California Kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula), a nonvenomous colubrid snake that is found throughout most of California, as well as parts of Nevada, Arizona, and Northwestern Mexico. Throughout its range, the California Kingsnake displays great variation in pattern and color, some of which is genetics based and some of which is environmentally determined. Most individuals have a banded pattern with alternating dark and light colored bands, but the width of the bands and color can vary wildly between individual snakes. Some have narrow light bands, while others have wide light bands. Some are black and white, while others are yellow and brown. It is also not uncommon for California Kingsnakes to have incomplete bands or chainlink bands, introducing even more variation in the pattern. The markings on top of the head also vary between individuals. Some populations also have darker faces and darker light bands than normal, often being referred to as mud morphs. But perhaps the most extreme form of pattern variation in the California Kingsnake is the striped and scrambled morphs that are found in Southern California, where the typical banded pattern is replaced with either a dorsal stripe, a mottled pattern, or a combination of the two. All of this phenotypic variation makes the California Kingsnake one of the most visually variable snakes in the world, and it is no wonder that countless field herpetologists have journeyed out to California to find this beautiful snake.

But it is not just looks that makes the California Kingsnake awesome. It also has an amazing life history. Most people are probably familiar with the kingsnake’s habit of occasionally hunting and eating rattlesnakes, and this is certainly impressive. It is immune to rattlesnake venom and kills its prey by biting the head and then constricting it until the prey dies of asphyxiation. But rattlesnakes are not the only prey items the California Kingsnake eats. Just as often, it feeds on rodents and lizards, making the California Kingsnake an important secondary consumer in the ecosystems where it occurs. But the most interesting part of the California Kingsnake’s life history has to be its secretive, often subterranean nature. While its habits vary between habitat types, the California Kingsnake spends much of its time underground in animal burrows and natural cracks in the soil, and the degree to which it can do so is mind boggling. If the burrow network is large enough, a California Kingsnake can rest, find food, cool off or warm up, keep its skin moist, and possibly even find a mate without ever coming above ground. Because of this, some experts estimate that a single California Kingsnake may spend as little as just two weeks worth of time above ground during an average rain year. During a drought year, that time could shrink down to only a few days. Some populations of California Kingsnakes spend more time moving above ground than others, but even these populations likely do not stay active above ground more than a few weeks a year. The California Kingsnake is also very sensitive to changes in ground moisture and air humidity, preferring to be active during moderately humid weather. As a result, it is active above ground less frequently than other snake species in the same ecosystem and is seldom seen.

However, there are some methods for increasing the probability of finding this snake. In desert habitats, driving roads at night during warm, humid weather is the best bet, but there is still no guarantee of seeing California Kingsnakes this way. The most productive method for finding this species is to place pieces of plywood (called coverboards) over vole and mouse burrows in the California grasslands and then checking underneath the plywood for any snakes that might be hiding there during the warm, relatively humid spring months (Late February through April most years). Called board flipping, this strategy works great for finding this species because well-placed coverboards can both create a moist microclimate underneath that the kingsnakes like and persuade the kingsnakes to thermoregulate under the coverboard instead of inside a burrow (the snakes still think they are underground). When the conditions are right, a site with many well-placed coverboards can reveal several California Kingsnakes in a day, making it possible to not just see the snakes but learn more about their local densities and movement patterns as well.

I have been actively searching for California Kingsnakes since the spring of 2019 and not only have I seen a good number of these incredible snakes, but I have also learned a lot about their life histories. However, this helping season, the spring of 2023, has been by far the most rewarding kingsnake field season I have had. For starters, I found 15 individual California Kingsnakes this year alone, by far the most I have ever seen in one year. Several of these snakes had unusual patterns, such as a bright brown and yellow banded morph I found in San Diego County, CA and a banded morph from Los Angeles County, CA with atypically wide and white light bands. Others were just overall spectacular snakes, such as a large banded morph I got to see on a field survey in Ventura County, CA. I also got to experience two "perfect" days for looking for snakes, those days when the conditions are perfect, the timing is right, and you end up finding a lot of snakes. The first was on April 2nd, when I found the first 3 California Kingsnakes of the year at boad line with 20-24 boards. In addition to the kingsnakes, I also found 4 Gophersnakes and 4 Ringneck Snakes, meaning that I was finding snakes at a rate of one under every other board, something that I had never done before. It is Southern California snaking at its finest. The second perfect day was April 13th, where I was able to find 6 kingsnakes in one day, beating my record for most seen in one day.

But the most rewarding California Kingsnake observations of the year were personal discoveries I made. The first of these was finding a hatchling in shed under a coverboard I placed a year and a half earlier in Santa Barbara County, CA. While the in-shed snake was not much to look at, I was still so excited to see it, as this was the first time I had found a California Kingsnake under a board that I had placed. I have found snakes under my own coverboards before, but never a kingsnake, as they are more particular about the moisture under the board and the placement of the board over rodent burrows. I also learned a lot about above-ground kingsnake movement thanks to one board line in particular, where I was able to find 7 of the 15 kingsnakes I saw this year. Three of these kingsnakes I found on multiple occasions, with each one being easily identified by its pattern. It is not unusual to find the same snake again when visiting a board line multiple times in a season, but it is unusual to find the same snake under different boards, or so I thought. All three of the kingsnakes I found multiple times this year moved to a different coverboard between encounters. What was more was that many of the boards I was finding kingsnakes under at this spot did not have holes or cracks underneath them. This meant that the kingsnakes were finding the boards by traveling above ground and were then moving considerable distances above ground to reach other boards. One individual that I found under a board with no holes was found just over a week later under another board around 200 feet away from the first board. Clearly, it had reached the board above ground. I was truly amazed to find that this snake had not only moved such a great distance, but had also done so above ground. After my experiences with the kingsnakes this year, I believe that it is likely that the California Kingsnakes in Southern California probably spend a lot more time traveling above ground than previously thought. Of course, further observations will have to be made to investigate this. But perhaps the greatest California Kingsnake find I had this year was a typical banded adult from a known board line in Ventura County, CA. While it did not look too special as far as California Kingsnakes are concerned, it is one of the most significant herpetological finds I have made in my life. To my knowledge (from talking with other field helpers and personal experience), this was the first California Kingsnake to ever be found at this site, a site where other common snakes are plentiful and the habitat looks like a California Kingsnake paradise. Being my last field day of the season, this was one heck of a way to end the spring herping season of 2023.

I will never get tired of searching for the California Kingsnake and this year has only made me more curious about the habits of this amazing species. I am sure that I will see more of this species in the future, but it is going to be hard to top the experiences I have had with the California Kingsnake in 2023.

Given that it is located in the dry American West, California has a surprisingly high diversity of salamander species. In fact, California is one of the greatest salamander diversity hot spots in the world outside of the Eastern United States. Many of the species and genera found in California are also endemic to the California Floristic Province, from obscure species such as the Mount Lyell Salamander to more wide-ranging species such as the genus Batrachoceps. With such a wide variety of unique salamanders in California, it is hard to pick a favorite. However, one that has always stood out to me is the Arboreal Salamander (Aneides lugubris), as species found only along the Western Sierra Nevada and the coastal mountains of California and Northern Baja California. Everything about this weird salamander species interests me. For one, it is a member of the family Plethodontidae, the most diverse family of salamanders. All plethodontid salamanders are unique in that they lack lungs, meaning that all of them rely entirely on their skin for respiration. They also spend their entire lives on land and lack the larval stage of development that many other salamanders have. In addition to their neat physiology, Arboreal Salamanders have an intriguing life history. Like most salamanders in California, Arboreal Salamanders emerge from estivation during the first major rains of the winter and spring and stay active until the logs and other objects they use for shelter dry out. While they are usually found on the ground or on rock formations, they can, as their name suggests, climb trees. Some have been found several feet up trees and it is likely that they use tree cavities to estivate during the dry summer. Rock crevices and logs can also be used as estivation sites, where as many as a dozen individuals can be found together. The majority of their diet consists of a wide variety of invertebrates and fungi, although they can eat larger prey items such as small salamanders. Whatever the Arboreal Salamander eats is quickly torn apart by its sharp teeth. Although it rarely bites people when handled, it occasionally does and can leave quite the wound. Its sharp teeth and strong jaws alls assist the males in defending territories and mates during the winter, when it is not uncommon to see individuals with scars on their bodies from fights. Rather common in the Northern part of its range, the Arboreal Salamander is rather spottily distributed in the Southern half of its range and is a good find anywhere South of San Luis Obsipo, CA. It can be found in a wide variety of wooded habitats, from pine forest and redwood forest, to oak woodlands and riparian corridors with sycamores. On top of all of this, the Arboreal Salamander is just straight up weird looking. Its head is wide and bulky with bulging eyes. Its toes have unusually wide tips to help with climbing. Its tail has many caudal grooves, which along with the maroon color make the tail look like an earthworm. If there was a salamander that was actually an alien in disguise, this would be it.

I have been wanting to learn about this species’ habits in the wild since I first learned about the species in 2020. I managed to find my first Arboreal Salamander in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2021 and my first subadult from Southern California in 2022, but I still wanted to see more of this species and better understand how to find it in wild reliably. For this, I got lucky with the 2022-2023 rainy season, which turned out to be one of the wettest years on record for California. One adventure that I already had planned for this rainy season was to visit the Bay Area to try and find salamanders there. There was one spot in the East Bay at the top of hill at the edge of a pine and oak forest, where I was able to find 9 Arboreal Salamanders under logs under pieces of bark, 2 subadults, 3 adults, and 4 hatchlings. It was really cool to get to see a great variation in the looks between the life stages of the species, as well as to see an old egg mass attached to the underside of a log with a hatchling underneath it. One of the adults also had unusually heavy spotting, making it an even more impressive salamander. From surveying that site, it was clear to me that most of the Arboreal Salamanders there were using either rotten logs, burrows, or tree cavities to estivate. This makes sense given that large trees and logs were in plentiful supply in this habitat, and I am guessing that this is the case for pine and oak forests throughout the Bay Area.

But I also wanted to learn more about the Arboreal Salamanders in Southern California since they are rarer in this part of their range. Thanks to my friend Brandon Troth, I knew a site where the species is occasionally seen under logs in an oak woodland, and this is where I saw my first individual from Southern California in 2022. However, I could not help but wonder where the Arboreal Salamanders go during the summer and why the species is only occasionally seen under logs at the site. Could it be that the species was just uncommon in this area? One thought I had was that the Arboreal Salamanders may be using a rock formation in the oak woodland as shelter. This would make sense given that the species does use rock crevices in other parts of its range. As luck would have it, I was looking for salamanders under logs at the site with Brandon during a heavy downpour in Early January and decided to shine a flashlight into some of the cracks of the rock formation to see what was there. I was not expecting to see anything, but I figured it was worth checking anyway. I am so glad that I did, because I was surprised to see an Arboreal Salamander deep in a crevice. I did not get a good look before it backed up further into the crevice, but I was so happy to see one in the crevice. A few more minutes of searching revealed three more Arboreal Salamanders in crevices. This proved my theory that the species was using the rock formation as shelter during the summer months. I also realized that these salamanders were preparing to leave the crevice at dark and walk around at night. I simply had to see this. I came back just a few minutes after sunset, with the rain still pouring hard. Sure enough, I saw several adult and subadult Arboreal Salamanders emerging from cracks in the rock to forage during the night. I was also lucky enough to see a huge, very old adult male emerge from a hole beneath a large rotten log. This salamander was at least 8-10 years old and the king of his domain. Earlier in the winter, Brandon and I had found a subadult with fresh wounds under a log next to where we found this large male, and it is very likely the large male pushed the subadult out from under the rotten log. Later in the wet season, Brandon and I went out again at night to do a more dedicated search for the Arboreal Salamanders during another rainy night and it was definitely worth it. We ended up seeing 24 Arboreal Salamanders of several different life stages and even got to see one climb a tree. It is clear to me that the presence of the rock crevices has a major role to play in the abundance of the species at this site, and it is likely that rock crevices and caves are important habitat features for the Arboreal Salamander in Southern California, although rotten logs, burrows, and tree cavities are also likely used as shelter. It is also clear that the best way to find this species is to look for the salamanders as they emerge from their shelters on rainy nights, just after dark.

I will never forget that first night of seeing Arboreal Salamanders emerging during the winter rains. It was simply amazing to get to see some great specimens of my favorite salamander and to finally learn how to find this species in Southern California. Figuring this out has to be one of the most rewarding herpetological discoveries I had made so far.